[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 28, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S4152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING KATHRYN TUCKER WINDHAM

 Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to 
honor a woman whose sparkling personality and literary voice truly 
captured the essence of Alabama. Kathryn Tucker Windham, a beloved 
storyteller, popular author, renowned photographer, and proud citizen 
of Alabama, passed away on June 12, 2011, at the age of 93. She lived a 
rich, full life, true to the highest ideals of our State. I knew her 
well and followed her career. In my opinion, her qualities of 
character, professional accomplishments, and simple decency place her 
at the top of all who have been products of our State.
  Ms. Windham authored over two dozen books in her lifetime, giving an 
endearing and insightful voice to Southern culture and folklore. Her 
books related everything from ghost stories and memories to delicious 
recipes, and she developed a devoted audience in Alabama and around the 
United States. Ms. Windham also became a celebrated radio personality, 
appearing on Alabama Public Radio for over 20 years and commentating on 
NPR's ``All Things Considered'' from 1985-1987. She treated listeners 
nationwide to evocative tales of the South, with such titles as ``Grits 
Is a Singular Delicacy'' and ``Honeysuckle Blossoms Smell Wonderful,'' 
all with a Southern accent that remained true to the highest level of 
culture and grammar. In addition, she was a positive force for good, 
constant in her efforts to promote racial reconciliation in her 
hometown of Selma and in her State.
  Ms. Windham spent her childhood in Thomasville, AL, not too far 
across the river from where I grew up, and later attended Huntingdon 
College, my alma mater. After graduation, she began work as a police 
reporter for a Montgomery paper, an impressive and unusual job for a 
female reporter at that time. Ms. Windham developed a distinguished 
journalistic career, working for the Birmingham News and winning 
several Associated Press awards for her work with the Selma Times 
Journal, where she made her home for many years. Some of her best known 
books are Alabama: One Big Front Porch and Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and 
Jeffery.
  Ms. Windham was also a noted photographer, and her images provide a 
stirring portrait of the people and places of her home State. Her 
photography was included in the Huntsville Museum of Art's 1989 
traveling exhibit, ``Alabama Landscape Photographs,'' and in a later 
show, ``Encounters 24. Kathryn Tucker Windham.''
  Among many honors and awards, Ms. Windham was inducted into the 
Alabama Academy of Honor. This organization celebrates Alabama's best 
and brightest, and Ms. Windham's membership reflects her status as one 
of the State's beloved cultural figures and influential personalities. 
Ms. Windham was indeed a great Alabamian, and her work showcases the 
best of Alabama's values in a way that should make every Alabamian 
proud.
  I recently 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 that are indeed works of art.
  My thoughts and prayers go out to Ms. Windham's family--her son, Ben, 
retired as editor of the Tuscaloosa News, her daughter Dilcy, and other 
family and friends as they mourn the loss of their beloved mother, 
relative, and friend. As her Senator and as her friend, I am grateful 
for the extraordinary life that Kathryn Tucker Windham led, and I am 
honored to serve as her Senator so as to be able to pay tribute to her 
life as the State and the Nation mark her passing. She will be dearly 
missed, but her legacy will live on in the stories, artwork, and 
memories she left behind.

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