POWERGRAMS

28 Thomasville for a Storytelling Bee in her honor. The gathering sponsored by the college and the Alabama Folklife Association was an extension of Windham's belief that "Alabama is like one big front porch where folks gather on summer nights to tell tales …" During her 93 years, the Thomasville native and Huntingdon College alumna wrote more than 30 books aer reporting for The Thomasville News, The Selma Times-Journal, becoming the Alabama Journal's first female reporter, and writing for The Montgomery Advertiser, The Mobile Press-Register and The Birmingham News. Her ghost stories prompted speeches at the National Storytelling Festival and led her to begin the Alabama Tale Tellin' Festival in Selma. Those were followed by frequent broadcasts on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." "Her voice went all over the world – it is one of the most beautiful voices you'll ever hear," says Deborah Rankins, museum director, who became friends with Windham. "Kids have their parents drive them hundreds of miles to the museum to write school papers about her. She was a treasure." Her life's work brought about the Kathryn Tucker Windham Museum opening in 2003 on her 85th birthday. Visitors follow a long hallway with 16 floor-to-ceiling banners documenting much of her life. Inside the library are display cases filled with items such as Windham's baby booties and hair brush; Thomasville Times press card; autographed books; the dress she wore performing "My Name Is Julia"; and some of the hats she was noted for wearing. Inside the Windham Room are more large panels with photographs from "Encounters," her book chronicling 50 black and white pictures she took across the South. Cases hold three Brownie cameras and a flash unit she used during her youth and newspaper days. A colorful patch skirt Windham wore is featured. In a corner stands the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame plaque from 2015, when Rankins helped induct Windham posthumously. A metal sculpture by Charlie Lucas is adorned with gloves and shoes the artist requested from Windham. For her funeral, Lucas transported the handmade plain wooden casket in the bed of his pickup truck to a Selma cemetery. Visitors from Germany recently filled the museum for an aernoon. Rankins says Jeffrey visits, too, seing off the alarm system from time to time. There's a wooden porch chair from Windham's home reserved for her favorite ghost. Now that the museum has a Facebook page with clips of Windham telling tales, the late author's works are finding a new audience. "Jeffrey has started trending all over the internet," says Rankins. "The art of storytelling is being revived. It's just priceless." Alabama-Tombigbee R C&D When federal funding fell through for resource conservation and development programs in the 1980s, some offices across the nation simply shut their doors. The Ala-Tom RC&D went the opposite direction as supporters turned the organization into a nonprofit reaching far beyond erosion control measures. Nearly 30 years aer incorporation, Ala-Tom is a statewide paceseer headquartered in the beautifully restored former Thomasville Bank & Trust. In 2018 alone, nearly 900 events served almost 95,000 people in nine southwest Alabama counties. In addition to projects supporting seniors, education, technology, health care and conservation, the organization provides loans up to $5,000 for small farmers and housing. "Alabama has been leading the national RD&C for years because of what we've been doing on our own," says Ala-Tom Executive Director Marie Lowder, who came on board eight years ago. Windham's porch chair reserved for Jeffrey. Windham statue by Charlie Lucas. Ala-Tom RC&D is headquartered in former Thomasville Bank & Trust.

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