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FEATURE FOR
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2002
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Walter and Kathy Winchester's Epic Adventures |
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The Winchester Family: Joseph, Walter
and Kathy
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Walter and Kathy Winchester have lived a life of
combined extravagance and simplicity: extravagance in the
vigor with which they have pursued happiness in their
worldly travels and simplicity in their sheer delight of
small wonders. Their life together is like "fairy tale
meets comic book", with Kathy's pretty, genteel character
embellished by Walter's free-spirited antics in a
fast-moving plot that glitters from every angle with love.
By the time their first chapter together began, both
Walter and Kathy were well underway in their careers.
After four years in the U.S. Air Force as a communications
specialist, Walter had obtained a bachelor degree in
education and recreation at the University of Georgia in
1972 and completed his master's degree two years later in
only eight months, between which he worked for a year in
Fort Jackson, SC's recreation service.
He continued working in the civil service as Recreation
Director at Fort McPherson, Georgia; Youth Activities
Director at Fort Rucker, Alabama and then in Fort Knox,
Kentucky; and Outdoor Recreation Director in Pisa, Italy.
Then, his profession took him to Bremerhaven, Germany in
November 1981, where he was Assistant Morale, Welfare and
Recreation Director.
He was smitten one day when Kathy, a sprightly and
spirited Department of Defense schoolteacher, came to the
recreation center to pick up some travel posters for her
work.
"I asked if I could take them out to her car and she told
me no," reports Walter. Kathy ducks her head and chuckles,
explaining, "I was very independent; I just grabbed them
and thanked him and ran out to my car."
Kathy lived in a lovely artist's community in an apartment
complex with four other teachers, all of whom shared the
expenses of one telephone. So it was that when, weeks
later, Walter gathered the courage to call her, his call
was answered by her friend who then summoned Kathy, in an
apartment across the hall, to take the call.
"We found out we had a lot in common," says Kathy, who had
begun her adventures in her hometown in Alabama, "We were
both from small southern towns and family was important to
us... We started playing racquetball together and one
thing led to another and on we go!"
The two courted, as well, in the fields of tulips in
Holland, with Walter kissing the ground upon their safe
arrival after having been terror-stricken by Kathy's
driving.
She laughs, admitting that once, in searching this way and
that for the road leading to her destination, she realized
she was on a bicycle road upon meeting head-on a
frightened biker.
When German records indicated Tennessee regulations
required that Walter prove his sanity before he could be
married (and with Kathy's joking certainty that he could
not pass the test) the two married instead in the
ivy-covered town hall of Kolding, Denmark. For her wedding
dress, Kathy wore a beautiful traditional German dirndl,
its fitted bodice and full skirt accented by a pretty
peasant blouse.
After their September 17, 1983, 8:00 a.m. wedding, the
newlyweds enjoyed the sights and smells of the town, which
included the odor of cheese that was perhaps too ripe, and
shared a fish dinner before settling into a lovely bed and
breakfast on the fiord.
To announce his marriage, Walter sent a postcard to his
mother. "Dear Mom," it read, "Smelled some cheese, ate
some fish, saw a castle and got married. Love, Bub."
The two had scarcely set up housekeeping together when
Walter was offered a job at Fort Devens in Ayer,
Massachusetts. Their home was a 150 year-old farmhouse in
the neighboring town of Shirley, with stairwells so narrow
a modern sofa could not fit into the upstairs rooms.
After fourteen months stateside, Walter and Kathy embarked
on another overseas position, this time on the
island-continent of Australia, where Walter worked as MWR
Director at the Harold E. Holt Communication Station. The
couple lived in the western town of Exmouth, located at
the edge of the desert on the Indian Ocean.
Though after their first day in Australia, when Walter
announced they had "seen it all" after enjoying views of
kangaroos, emus and giant turtles, the "Land Down Under"
continued to provide its unique flavor, with eucalyptus
trees perfuming the air outside their front door, brightly
plumaged birds adding color to the dry landscape (even the
desert came to live at certain times of year, with bright
red blossoms springing up among the sparse vegetation) and
the turtles' lumbering pilgrimage onto the beaches to lay
their eggs paralleling Kathy's own blossoming maternity.
"We did a lot of turtle-watching," she smiles, sharing
photographs of the gigantic beasts laying eggs in holes
dug into the sand. Other photos show Kathy silhouetted
against the blue sky, ocean and beach, the growing curve
of her belly revealing the nearness of their pending
child. Yet another shows Walter, similarly positioned,
pooching his belly out in mock maternity.
When Joseph was born on December 9, 1985, Kathy recalls,
"the minute he came out, they wrapped him and put him on
my tummy, then brought tea and lemon tarts and left the
room so we could be alone."
Walter offered a similar version of the birth's events,
adding that the scones were topped with whipped cream into
which he dipped his finger in order to give his newborn
son a taste. "She couldn't believe I did that, but he
turned out all right," Walter chuckles.
Photos taken during Joseph's first year show "two Joeys"
at play, with little Joseph accompanied by a
bottle-sucking baby kangaroo that was rescued from the
pouch of his mother after she was felled in an automobile
accident.
The family moved to Scotland, the northern region of the
United Kingdom, above England, where they lived and worked
for 14 months. One highlight of the Walter's tour of duty
was the Scottish Highland Games in Braemar, where
kilt-wearing bagpipe bands form the backdrop of the games
that include caber-tossing (much like the under-handed
tossing of a telephone pole), shot-putting, hammer
throwing and other centuries-old events take place.
The day the Winchesters attended the festival was a
typically rainy one, save for the time during which the
royal family arrived to take their seats in their private
viewing box. The royal family - including Queen Elizabeth,
Prince Phillip, Charles and Princess Diana, Andrew and
Fergie, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret - came
within six feet of Walter as he stood beside the road.
"It had been raining all day but the sun shined all the
time they were there," says Walter, who recalled the wet
weather returned upon their departure.
Joseph was able to spend more time experiencing the land
of his birth when the family returned to their former duty
station in Australia in 1988.
At each work station, Kathy was able to use her background
in education to teach or work with students in some way,
sometimes in traditional roles and at other times
participating in novel approaches like the "Kindergarten
on wheels". The double-decker bus outfitted for play and
learning parked in front of the Winchester home, where
parents brought their children for the day's activities.
The family moved to Stockton, California briefly in 1990,
when Walter traded jobs with another MWR Director, before
heading overseas again in 1991 a U.S. Naval facility in
Brawdy Wales, U.K., where they remained for four years,
relishing the Old World atmosphere of the town where milk
was still delivered to the front door each morning and
fruits and vegetables were sold door-to-door in the
afternoon.
The couple relished the English countryside and visits to
James Harriot's Yorkshire, where miles of stone fencing
separated pastures, and to places like Winchester
Cathedral.
With Joseph growing up rapidly, seven years ago the
Winchesters made their way back to their homeland and
Walter's hometown of McKenzie. The couple appreciates the
small-town values that make Carroll County a great place
to raise a family, though Walter laments his son will not
be able to experience the same grass-roots upbringing he
was privy to as one of nine children born to sharecroppers
Fonzo (F.V.) Winchester and Clara Myers Winchester.
"We were a loving family even though I didn't enjoy it
until I had learned a lot," he says wistfully, recalling
learning to drive a tractor on the farm and driving a car
down country roads. "We want to give our children the
things we didn't have but sometimes I think we go a bit
overboard," he continues, considering the simple pleasures
being a part of a loving family brings.
Walter began working at E.W. James Grocery while Kathy
accepted a part-time position at Bethel College before
later assuming full-time duties as the Director of Student
Teaching and Field Experience. Joseph is now a junior at
McKenzie High School who is into video games and learning
to play the guitar.
Personally, the Winchesters enjoy traveling to gospel
concerts in places like Savannah, Florence and Corinth,
Mississippi as well as visiting Kathy's family in Alabama.
As he prepares to harness the potential energy of McKenzie
as its newly-elected mayor, Winchester hopes to bring
community and government together to keep the public
better informed and seek greater public participation in
the going-on of the city, while promoting the area's
assets to potential industries and promoting local
businesses to the populace.
"We have a four-lane road going four different ways that
people are taking too often to go shopping other places,"
he says, "I hope people will realize when they spend money
locally, their taxes stay here and they help local
merchants stay available."
He hopes, as well, to promote a closer relationship
between the students of Bethel and the people of McKenzie.
"They have over a thousand students there; we need to get
them involved in the community and the community involved
with their programs and sporting events... We've got a lot
of students that have talents they'd like to share with
the community."
Attracting students and others to the community is another
way to open doors to opportunity, Winchester believes.
"Sometimes it's not what you know but who you know," he
says in regard to potential industry and business
opportunities.
The city's streets are another priority, says Winchester,
because "the streets are visible to everybody that comes
through town. It's not an inviting sight when they have to
dodge pot holes."
Winchester's last day at E.W. James is this Monday. "I've
enjoyed it," he says concerning his work there, "I enjoy
the people; I enjoy carrying their bags out to their cars.
It gave me a chance to meet so many people."
Mayor Winchester intends, at least initially, to give
full-time effort to his mayoral duties "until we get the
city moving again in the right direction."
"We want to be a bright spot in the tri-counties, not just
a little town stuck off somewhere between Weakley, Carroll
and Henry counties," he asserts, "With a good
transportation system in place and the airport, we should
be a very convenient spot for an industry to locate, not
25 miles from the interstate."
The latest chapter in the Winchester saga seems to be
coming along in fine form, still retaining the spice of
Walter's humor. "It's been a wonderful and varied life,"
smiles Kathy.
Walter agrees… somewhat. "She varied and I'm wonderful,"
he grins. |
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2002
Feature
Archives: |
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2001
Feature
Archives: |
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Phone (731) 352-3323 or
Fax (731) 352-3322
washburn@mckenziebanner.com
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