Winona was my paternal grandfather, the son of Henry G. and Laurah P. Whitlock Walters. He came from a modest family, the 2nd oldest, next to his sister Elizabeth Walters Henson. His brothers were Henry and Warren and he had two younger sisters as well, Beaulah and Mary. He married my Grandmother, Lillie Cooper Walters, in or around 1911-1912. They had four children, all of whom lived to adulthood. Hazel Walters Bingham (b. 1913), Florence Evelyn Springer (b. 1919), William Henry "Billy" Walters (b. 1925) and my dad James Lawrence Walters (b. 1929).
Winona met an untimely death at the age of 46. He died in 1935 as the result of a car accident. The story goes, that he was out of town on church business, and was riding in the backseat of a model A or T, when another car hit their car causing him to be ejected. He sustained injuries to his internal organs, but died from complications of a ruptured bladder. In that day medicine was not advanced enough to get him into surgery in time, I don't think the doctors actually knew about his internal injuries until autopsy.
Most of his working years were spent in the cotton and rice fields of Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. A couple of years before his death, he answered the Lord's call to preach, and became a baptist minister. He would baptize groups of people out behind the back of the church in a creek in the early 1930's. The church where this was being done is still in use today, with the same name as it was in my Grandfather's day. According to the church books and my dad's story to back this up, one autumn night in 1933, the congregation took-up an offering for the preacher and his family (you see in those days the preacher served out of his heart, he did not draw a minister's salary), however, my Grandfather although raising 4 kids in the height of the Great Depression, unselfishly gave the offering to a poor widow lady in the church, so that she and her children would have a little bit to help them through the oncoming cold months. Ironically, it was only two Autumn's later that his own wife became widowed, and was left to finishing raising their 2 youngest children. At the time of his death, the family was living in the Half Moon community, just outside of Blytheville Arkansas. His widow, Lillie, eventually remarried to a Joe Watkins sometime in the 1940's.
Winona left this Earth decades before I was born. So I never met him, obviously, but am proud of his legacy and my heritage. Being a preacher, he was very strict with the rearing of his own four children, they learned morals, respect and manners from this fine man. You don't see those qualities much anymore in today's youth. I only wish he could've stayed around to see them grow up; my dad's memories of him were very vague, as he was only 6 years old when the sheriff came to the house to tell my Grandma about the accident that took this father, husband's, and preacher's life on that October evening in 1935.
A special thank you to a sweet lady, C. Bergin for sponsoring Winona's memorial page. Thank you for your overwhelming generosity.
Winona met an untimely death at the age of 46. He died in 1935 as the result of a car accident. The story goes, that he was out of town on church business, and was riding in the backseat of a model A or T, when another car hit their car causing him to be ejected. He sustained injuries to his internal organs, but died from complications of a ruptured bladder. In that day medicine was not advanced enough to get him into surgery in time, I don't think the doctors actually knew about his internal injuries until autopsy.
Most of his working years were spent in the cotton and rice fields of Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. A couple of years before his death, he answered the Lord's call to preach, and became a baptist minister. He would baptize groups of people out behind the back of the church in a creek in the early 1930's. The church where this was being done is still in use today, with the same name as it was in my Grandfather's day. According to the church books and my dad's story to back this up, one autumn night in 1933, the congregation took-up an offering for the preacher and his family (you see in those days the preacher served out of his heart, he did not draw a minister's salary), however, my Grandfather although raising 4 kids in the height of the Great Depression, unselfishly gave the offering to a poor widow lady in the church, so that she and her children would have a little bit to help them through the oncoming cold months. Ironically, it was only two Autumn's later that his own wife became widowed, and was left to finishing raising their 2 youngest children. At the time of his death, the family was living in the Half Moon community, just outside of Blytheville Arkansas. His widow, Lillie, eventually remarried to a Joe Watkins sometime in the 1940's.
Winona left this Earth decades before I was born. So I never met him, obviously, but am proud of his legacy and my heritage. Being a preacher, he was very strict with the rearing of his own four children, they learned morals, respect and manners from this fine man. You don't see those qualities much anymore in today's youth. I only wish he could've stayed around to see them grow up; my dad's memories of him were very vague, as he was only 6 years old when the sheriff came to the house to tell my Grandma about the accident that took this father, husband's, and preacher's life on that October evening in 1935.
A special thank you to a sweet lady, C. Bergin for sponsoring Winona's memorial page. Thank you for your overwhelming generosity.
Winona was my paternal grandfather, the son of Henry G. and Laurah P. Whitlock Walters. He came from a modest family, the 2nd oldest, next to his sister Elizabeth Walters Henson. His brothers were Henry and Warren and he had two younger sisters as well, Beaulah and Mary. He married my Grandmother, Lillie Cooper Walters, in or around 1911-1912. They had four children, all of whom lived to adulthood. Hazel Walters Bingham (b. 1913), Florence Evelyn Springer (b. 1919), William Henry "Billy" Walters (b. 1925) and my dad James Lawrence Walters (b. 1929).
Winona met an untimely death at the age of 46. He died in 1935 as the result of a car accident. The story goes, that he was out of town on church business, and was riding in the backseat of a model A or T, when another car hit their car causing him to be ejected. He sustained injuries to his internal organs, but died from complications of a ruptured bladder. In that day medicine was not advanced enough to get him into surgery in time, I don't think the doctors actually knew about his internal injuries until autopsy.
Most of his working years were spent in the cotton and rice fields of Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. A couple of years before his death, he answered the Lord's call to preach, and became a baptist minister. He would baptize groups of people out behind the back of the church in a creek in the early 1930's. The church where this was being done is still in use today, with the same name as it was in my Grandfather's day. According to the church books and my dad's story to back this up, one autumn night in 1933, the congregation took-up an offering for the preacher and his family (you see in those days the preacher served out of his heart, he did not draw a minister's salary), however, my Grandfather although raising 4 kids in the height of the Great Depression, unselfishly gave the offering to a poor widow lady in the church, so that she and her children would have a little bit to help them through the oncoming cold months. Ironically, it was only two Autumn's later that his own wife became widowed, and was left to finishing raising their 2 youngest children. At the time of his death, the family was living in the Half Moon community, just outside of Blytheville Arkansas. His widow, Lillie, eventually remarried to a Joe Watkins sometime in the 1940's.
Winona left this Earth decades before I was born. So I never met him, obviously, but am proud of his legacy and my heritage. Being a preacher, he was very strict with the rearing of his own four children, they learned morals, respect and manners from this fine man. You don't see those qualities much anymore in today's youth. I only wish he could've stayed around to see them grow up; my dad's memories of him were very vague, as he was only 6 years old when the sheriff came to the house to tell my Grandma about the accident that took this father, husband's, and preacher's life on that October evening in 1935.
A special thank you to a sweet lady, C. Bergin for sponsoring Winona's memorial page. Thank you for your overwhelming generosity.
Winona met an untimely death at the age of 46. He died in 1935 as the result of a car accident. The story goes, that he was out of town on church business, and was riding in the backseat of a model A or T, when another car hit their car causing him to be ejected. He sustained injuries to his internal organs, but died from complications of a ruptured bladder. In that day medicine was not advanced enough to get him into surgery in time, I don't think the doctors actually knew about his internal injuries until autopsy.
Most of his working years were spent in the cotton and rice fields of Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. A couple of years before his death, he answered the Lord's call to preach, and became a baptist minister. He would baptize groups of people out behind the back of the church in a creek in the early 1930's. The church where this was being done is still in use today, with the same name as it was in my Grandfather's day. According to the church books and my dad's story to back this up, one autumn night in 1933, the congregation took-up an offering for the preacher and his family (you see in those days the preacher served out of his heart, he did not draw a minister's salary), however, my Grandfather although raising 4 kids in the height of the Great Depression, unselfishly gave the offering to a poor widow lady in the church, so that she and her children would have a little bit to help them through the oncoming cold months. Ironically, it was only two Autumn's later that his own wife became widowed, and was left to finishing raising their 2 youngest children. At the time of his death, the family was living in the Half Moon community, just outside of Blytheville Arkansas. His widow, Lillie, eventually remarried to a Joe Watkins sometime in the 1940's.
Winona left this Earth decades before I was born. So I never met him, obviously, but am proud of his legacy and my heritage. Being a preacher, he was very strict with the rearing of his own four children, they learned morals, respect and manners from this fine man. You don't see those qualities much anymore in today's youth. I only wish he could've stayed around to see them grow up; my dad's memories of him were very vague, as he was only 6 years old when the sheriff came to the house to tell my Grandma about the accident that took this father, husband's, and preacher's life on that October evening in 1935.
A special thank you to a sweet lady, C. Bergin for sponsoring Winona's memorial page. Thank you for your overwhelming generosity.
