This Goodly Land

Kathryn Tucker Windham (June 2, 1918–present)

Other Names Used

• Kathryn Tucker: birth name

Alabama Connections

• Selma, Dallas County: birthplace, adult residence
• Thomasville, Clarke County: childhood residence, brief adult residence
• Montgomery, Montgomery County: education, adult residence
• Birmingham, Jefferson County: adult residence
• Camden, Wilcox County: worked for Area Agency on Aging

Selected Works

• Windham, Kathryn Tucker, and Margaret Gillis Figh. 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. Huntsville: Strode, 1969. For younger readers.
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. Alabama: One Big Front Porch. Huntsville: Strode, 1975. Rpt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991. Rpt. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2007.
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. Jeffrey's Latest 13: More Alabama Ghosts. Huntsville: Strode, 1982. For younger readers.
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. A Serigamy of Stories. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988.
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. Odd-Egg Editor. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990.
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. Encounters. Montgomery: Black Belt Press, 1998.
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. The Bridal Wreath Bush. Illus. John Solomon Sandridge. Montgomery: Black Belt Press, 1999. For younger readers.
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. Ernest's Gift. Illus. Frank Hardy. Montgomery: Junebug Books, 2004. For younger readers.

Literary Awards

• Alabama Author Award, Alabama Library Association, 1976, for Alabama: One Big Front Porch

Biographical Information

Kathryn Tucker Windham was born in a hospital in Selma, Ala., and grew up in Thomasville, Ala., surrounded by her extended family. She became interested in the newspaper business at an early age, assisting her cousin, the editor of the Thomasville Times, and writing movie reviews for the paper. She also became interested in photography after receiving a Brownie camera in a Kodak promotional giveaway. Windham attended Huntingdon College, where she worked on the college newspaper. After graduating with an AB in 1939, Windham worked as a freelance journalist. In 1941, she was hired as a police reporter and feature writer by The Alabama Journal in Montgomery. In 1943, Windham moved to Birmingham to work for the U.S. Treasury Department promoting war bond sales. She missed journalism, however, and began working for The Birmingham News in 1944. In 1946, Windham and her husband moved to Selma, where she wrote freelance articles while raising her children. In the early 1950s, she also wrote a locally syndicated newspaper column, “Around Our House.” After her husband’s death, Windham worked for the Selma Times-Journal from 1960-1973. Windham was community relations coordinator for the Alabama-Tombigbee Rivers Regional Planning and Development Commission’s Area Agency on Aging for four years in the mid-1970s.

Windham’s first book, Treasured Alabama Recipes, was published in 1967. Perhaps her best-known book, 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, cowritten with folklorist Margaret Figh, was published in 1969. In 1974, Windham was invited to participate in the second annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tenn. She became a founder of the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling and has served on its board of directors. She continues to perform at festivals across the South and has made recordings of her stories. In 1984, Windham began doing radio commentaries for WUAL, the public radio station in Tuscaloosa. For eighteen months in the mid-1980s, these were also broadcast by National Public Radio. Also in the mid-1980s, Windham wrote and began performing My Name Is Julia, a one-woman play about the life of Alabama educator and reformer Julia S. Tutwiler. Alabama Public Television filmed and aired a special version of My Name Is Julia in 1993. Windham published a memoir of her experiences as a journalist, Odd-Egg Editor, in 1990. Windham’s early interest in photography has continued throughout her life. The first public exhibition of her photographs took place in 1993, and she has published several books of photographs. In 2000, Windham received the Alabama Humanities Award from the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Interests and Themes

Much of Kathryn Tucker Windham’s writing is based in Alabama and includes collections of stories about her family, her work, and the places in which she has lived. She has also written several cookery books and collections of ghost stories, all of them based in the South.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Articles

• Brackner, Joey. "All Things Southern: An Interview With Kathryn Tucker Windham". First Draft Fall. 1998: 1-5.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• "Windham, Kathryn Tucker (1918-)"; Something About the Author. Vol. 14. Detroit: Gale Research Company, . 259-261.

Reference Web Sites

• "Kathryn Tucker Windham Museum". Alabama Writers Symposium. Alabama Southern Community College. http://www.ascc.edu/Default.asp?L=0&DivisionID='646'&DepartmentID='811'.
• Robb, Frances Osborn. "Kathryn Tucker Windham". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2008. Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1582.

Location of Papers

• Auburn University

Photo courtesy of NewSouth Books.

Last updated on Jun 03, 2008.