Alabama’s beloved storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham will be inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame on March 12, 2015 at 10:30a.m.
Windham is well known as a master storyteller, author, playwright, photographer, and public television and radio personality. She began her writing career at age twelve when she became movie editor for her cousin Earl Tucker’s weekly newspaper, The Thomasville Times. After spending her childhood in Thomasville and graduating from Huntingdon College, she went to work as a reporter for The Alabama Journal. In 1942, she moved to Birmingham, and in 1944 she joined The Birmingham News. She married A.B. Windham in 1946, and they moved to Selma where their three children were born. 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 Tellin’ 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.
According to the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame’s guidelines, a nominee must have been deceased for two years. Windham died at age 93, on June 12, 2011, shortly before the publication of the last of her 29 books: She: The Old Woman Who Took Over My Life.
The induction ceremony will take place at 10:30a.m. in Alumnae Auditorium on the Judson College campus in Marion, AL, and will be open to the public at no charge. A luncheon in Windham’s honor will follow the induction ceremony. Reservations are required for the luncheon and must be made by March 6 by calling (334) 683-5109.
The Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame, founded in 1970, is housed in the A. Howard Bean Hall on the campus of Judson College in Marion, AL.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ted Tucker Photography