Kathryn Tucker Windham was born in Selma, Alabama, on June 2, 1918. She spent the majority of her upbringing in the nearby town of Thomasville. She is known for her work as a journalist, photographer, American storyteller, folklorist, and author. Kathryn Tucker Windham passed away 10 days following her 93rd birthday on June 12, 2011.
Her First Job as a Writer
When she was not even a teenager, Kathryn landed her first writing assignment. It was a gig doing movie reviews for The Thomasville Times, a small-town newspaper operated by her cousin.
A Brilliant Career
Ms. Tucker went on to study at Huntington College, where she earned her Bacculearette Degree in 1939. Shortly after graduation, she got a job with the Alabama Journal and was the first woman journalist. After that, she went to work for The Birmingham News in 1944.
A Wife and Mother
As if her career as the first woman journalist wasn’t enough, she was also a wife and mother of three. She wed Amasa Benjamin Windham in 1946, becoming Kathryn Windham. Amasa and Kathryn together shared three children.
Award Winner
Kathryn won several awards for photography and writing from the Associated Press for her work in 1956 at the Selma Times-Journal.
Who Was Jeffrey?
The Windham household had an uninvited guest in their home in October of 1966. The family would often hear footsteps coming from a room no one occupied. Also, items would get moved, and no one in the house admitted to doing it. The Windham children named this invisible house guest, Jeffrey.
One evening, the Windham children had some friends over, and someone brought a Ouija board with them. The children decided to try using the Ouija board to reach out to Jeffrey. During this interaction, someone in the group was able to snap a few photographs. As the photos were developed, a dark and shadowy shape that looked like a human began to form.
It was these experiences with Jeffrey that inspired Kathryn Windham to write stories about Jeffrey and other ghosts.
Webb Paranormal Group visited one of the ghost listed in her book. The group held an investigation into the gravesite of William Grancer Harrison, who is buried in Kinston, Alabama