beauty and grace had always served her well and they did not fail on this day. It just so happened that as Kazenbach was leaving to take Malone and Hood to their dorms, one of the assistants for the news media came by the bushes where Winifred was crouching. Winifred hoped he wouldn’t see her but he came over to where she was hiding and asked, “What are you doing here?” The guy was young and attractive and he at once noticed how beautiful Winifred was.
“I’m sorry,” she replied. “I was here to register for summer school and I got into the middle of all of this. I just couldn’t leave until I saw what was happening.”
The young man grinned and said, “Well, from what I can tell it has only begun.”
“What do you mean?” asked Winifred.
“The man from the attorney general’s office will be back, I’m sure. This isn’t over by any means,” replied the man from the news crew.
“Well, I have to go. I have to meet my mom and sister at the Union Building and go back home to Birmingham.”
“Good luck!” smiled the man. “Be sure and watch all of this on TV tonight.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
With that, the assistant returned to his news crew, leaving Winifred in the bushes in front of the nursing building. At that point, she had an idea. After registration, the family was going to Helen’s house for lunch. This was the last day before summer school. There was no need to hurry back to Homewood. She wished Frances, Trisha, and Helen could join her to watch what was about to happen, but she knew her mother would not want to risk it, especially with a nine-year-old daughter. Winifred decided she would take a path parallel to the bushes, go to Martha Parham Hall, and call her mother at the Union Building. She had roomed there her freshman year and would return to Parham Hall in the fall. She decided to tell Frances there was a problem with registration. That was true. She would tell her to go with Trisha and Helen to have lunch at Helen’s house. Winifred would call her when she was ready to go. She planned to go back to the bushes at the nursing building and see what else would unfold that day. After all, that handsome young man had told her the drama was by no means over.
With all of the security on campus, Winifred found it surprisingly easy to make it to Parham Hall. She walked in the front door and was immediately greeted by Miss Barton, the house mother, who she knew well from her freshman year.
“Hi Winifred. What are you doing here?”
“I came with my mother and little sister to register for summer classes. I need to call my mother, if that is ok with you. She’s in the Union Building. Do you have the number?”
“I know it by heart,” replied Miss Barton, and gave her the number.
Winifred picked up the hall phone and called the Union Building. A voice answered on the second ring and Winifred asked, “I need to speak with a Mrs. Dodd. I know she is there having coffee and doughnuts with my sister and cousin.”
“We don’t take phone calls from students. Just the staff.” Whoever had answered was about to hang up when Winifred quickly replied.
“Please! This is an emergency.”
After a long pause, the voice said, “I’ll try.”
Two minutes later Frances came to the phone and Winifred explained that she was having trouble with registration.
“What seems to be the problem?” asked Frances.
“It is complicated. I will tell you when I see you. Why don’t you and Trisha go on to Helen’s for lunch. I’ll eat something on campus and then I’ll call you when I’ve finished. This could take a couple of hours.”
“Well,” explained her mother, “we are hungry. Call me when you get finished and I’ll meet you at the strip mall where we parked this morning. We’ll see you then.”
“Thanks! I’ll call you.”
“Hmmm,” thought Winifred. She had been so involved in what was going on that she had not realized she was hungry too. In fact, she was famished. She decided to find Miss Barton and ask if she could eat in the dining room. Since she was not staying in the dorm that summer, she would have to pay. She checked her purse and realized she had enough for lunch.
Winifred went looking for Miss Barton. She asked the student at the front desk where she could find her. The student explained Miss Barton was probably in her apartment. Miss Barton had a large apartment on the first floor of Martha Parham Hall. Not wanting to enter Miss Barton’s private quarters, Winifred asked the student if there was any way she could have lunch in the dining room. The student wanted to know if Winifred had her ID.
“Oh yes! I’m going to summer school. I lived here last year and will again this fall, but I’m commuting this summer.”
That was more information than the student wanted to know. She replied, “Well, if you’ve got $2.50 you can have lunch.”
Winifred pulled out $3.00, handed it to the student worker who promptly gave her 50 cents, while simultaneously placing the $3.00 in a cash box.Winifred entered the dining hall; there was hardly anyone there. Eight students were having lunch as she went by each of the silver trays to make her selection. Three students entered the line behind her. Winifred took her tray to an empty table and then went back to get her favorite beverage, sweet iced tea. First, though, she decided to use the bathroom and wash her hands. When she returned, four women were sitting at her table. One of them was Vivian Malone. Stunned, Winifred sat down at the table in silence.
That afternoon, President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard, making them under his command instead of the jurisdiction of Governor Wallace. One hundred National Guardsmen escorted Vivian Malone and James Hood into Foster Auditorium. General Henry Graham approached Governor Wallace at the door and demanded that he move aside. Wallace left the building.
Manchester, Alabama
July 11, 1950
During that fateful summer of 1963, when Frances and Winifred dropped Trisha at Helen’s house in Alberta City every day on their way to classes at the University, Winifred would occasionally think about the summers she spent with Helen and her grandparents on the farm in Manchester. One steamy morning in late June, Helen was waiting for the Dodd family on her curb next to her mailbox so she could tell them about the rattlesnake she had killed that morning just after breakfast—right in her backyard. As Helen was telling how she killed the snake with a shovel, Winifred thought back to the summer of 1950 when she had an encounter with a snake at the farm, not too long after Helen had introduced her to the bull with red eyes. A week after the bull incident, Helen went back to her parents in Tarrant. Winifred stayed one more week with Nana and Daddy Mims. Nana was thrilled to have Winifred another week without Helen. Winifred was Nana’s favorite grandchild, and not without reason. Helen had put firecrackers in the mailbox and tried to blow it up; she’d started a fire in the barn, and nearly drowned Winifred, playing baptism in the creek—all during the month of June.
Nana and Winifred had a common bond, albeit a questionable one. They were both worriers. Nana was a natural born worrier—what her friends called a worry wart. She had three concerns about Winifred. She was afraid Winifred was too much of a follower. Winifred would do anything others wanted her to do, even if she didn’t want to. Winifred’s time with Helen over the past month had certainly
