Kathryn Tucker Windham

Kathryn Tucker Windham, stolen from NPR
and Alvin Binn of AP.

As a kid growing up in Alabama, you couldn't make it through autumn without coming across Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey.  Typically, sometime around mid-October, the school librarian would sit us down and read a story or two of Southern hauntings.  Other years a friend would write her name amid the turned edges of the well-used library index card and bring the worn copy of the book to reading time in class.  Kids would retell the tales, often affirming their truth by personally attesting to experiences with the spirits.  "My grandma lives in Carrollton, and we went to see the courthouse at night and we saw the ghost!" they would claim.  Others would attest to strange happenings in old homes, or family legends of visitors from beyond the grave.

Kathryn Tucker Windham could tell a story.  Her Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey has kept many Alabama children awake through the night since its publication in 1964.  Her storytelling has continued through the years, as she conveyed weekly stories for Alabama Public Radio's Morning Edition.  Like all good storytellers, she transported listeners somewhere else.  Through her words, we traveled with her by train to her first day at the University of Alabama, or watched as she vividly described the burning house, and with it that damned piano, of her childhood music teacher.  Her stories of growing up in rural south Alabama were a window into the small towns where my grandparents grew up, her style reminiscent of the stories told by my grandmother.

Mrs. Windham passed away last week, after telling her stories for a full 93 years.  She will be missed, though her tales will certainly live on in elementary school libraries throughout the state.


Credit to Birmingham News for the video.