Kathryn Tucker Windham's Impact On Culture
Kathryn Tucker Windham (June 2, 1918 – June 12, 2011) was an American storyteller, author, photographer, and journalist. She was born in Selma, Alabama and grew up in nearby Thomasville, Alabama. Windham got her first writing job at the age of 12, reviewing movies for her cousin's small town newspaper, The Thomasville Times. She earned a B.A. degree from Huntington College in 1939. Soon after graduating she became a reporter for the Alabama Journal. Starting in 1944, she worked for The Birmingham News. In 1946 she married Amasa Benjamin Windham with whom she had three children. In 1956 she went to work at the Selma Times-Journal where she won several Associated Press awards for her writing and photography. She died on June 12, 2011.
This remarkable …show more content…
Windham joined the staff of The Selma Times-Journal in 1956 and won several Associated Press awards for writing and photography.
Although Windham retired from reporting in 1973, she never retired from telling stories. She founded the Alabama Tale Telling’ Festival, which has been held annually in Selma since 1978. She was featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and was a regular storyteller on Alabama Public Radio’s Alabama Life. In 1995 she received the National Storytelling Association’s Circle of Excellence Award and Lifetime Achievement Award.
One of the great impacts of Mrs. Windham impact on culture was the book Ernest’s Gift, the true story of Ernest Dawson, who was once denied entry into the Selma library because he was black. Ernest went on to have a full-life, all wonderfully documented by Windham in the story. And when he died, Ernest donated $10,000 to buy children’s books for the Selma library.
I watched a video of her in her small rocking chair, telling stories. They were told superbly, with perfect timing, and I burst out laughing. She was much like my great aunts, her contemporaries, who lived not far away. The stories of this generation provided humor, history, family affection, and education to listeners. It is a time pretty much gone. Someone once said that the purest examples of a period's ideals are curiously often found in its last days. It may be Ms. Windham was the last and best practitioner of those humorous and revealing stories
This remarkable …show more content…
Windham joined the staff of The Selma Times-Journal in 1956 and won several Associated Press awards for writing and photography.
Although Windham retired from reporting in 1973, she never retired from telling stories. She founded the Alabama Tale Telling’ Festival, which has been held annually in Selma since 1978. She was featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and was a regular storyteller on Alabama Public Radio’s Alabama Life. In 1995 she received the National Storytelling Association’s Circle of Excellence Award and Lifetime Achievement Award.
One of the great impacts of Mrs. Windham impact on culture was the book Ernest’s Gift, the true story of Ernest Dawson, who was once denied entry into the Selma library because he was black. Ernest went on to have a full-life, all wonderfully documented by Windham in the story. And when he died, Ernest donated $10,000 to buy children’s books for the Selma library.
I watched a video of her in her small rocking chair, telling stories. They were told superbly, with perfect timing, and I burst out laughing. She was much like my great aunts, her contemporaries, who lived not far away. The stories of this generation provided humor, history, family affection, and education to listeners. It is a time pretty much gone. Someone once said that the purest examples of a period's ideals are curiously often found in its last days. It may be Ms. Windham was the last and best practitioner of those humorous and revealing stories