Notification of former governor William Winter’s death came from my Mississippi Today link, but it felt personal. My first knowledge of him came when I was a first-grader in his mother’s classroom. My father, who was the six-grade rural school principal as well as pastor of the village Baptist church, would come into the classroom to speak to her about something and always ask about her son. The end of WW II was near and William was in the Philippines.
Growing up in a day when one could not be elected to public office without embracing segregation, I watched my parents choose the least racist candidate for voting. (Yes, there are degrees.) William Winter would always be the choice if he was running. Among other reasons that he comes up for admiration with me is that he acknowledged mistakes he had made in the past and went on to do much to make amends and bring harmony among all people in Mississippi.
When his book, The Measure of Our Days, was distributed by University Press of Mississippi, William Winter and his editor Andrew P. Mullens, Jr. came to Hattiesburg on his book tour to sign at Main Street Books. I stood in a lengthy line with books for myself and my three children, waiting my turn. When my time came, I introduced myself as Berton and Virginia McGee’s daughter. He stood up from his signing desk to shake my hand and said, “My mother thought your father was one of the finest men who ever lived.” He asked questions about each of my three children before writing personal messages in our books. I waited until I got to the car to see what he had written in mine, “To Virginia Butler, with appreciation and best wishes. You and I have a lot in common, since we were both pupils of my mother in Grenada County. William Winter.”
As governor William Winter honored his mother’s heritage since he may be best known for passing the landmark 1982 Education Reform Act with his famous slogan, “The road out of the poor house runs past the school house.” I find significance in the fact that both the cover of his book and the frontispiece picture him with children. He believed that every Mississippi child regardless of race or station in life deserved the opportunities offered by education. In the years after finishing his political career, he spent his days looking to bring understanding and equality to all of Mississippi’s citizens through the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.
Gov. Winter’s many accolades include one from Marshall Ramsey who noted the irony that someone who lived to be 97 left people thinking his life had been cut short. His praises are sung by those who seem important, but also by regular folks like me. He related to both equally well all his life. We will miss his influence that connected all of us together as human beings.