When Auburn University journalism students visited celebrated Alabama author and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham’s Selma home late last week, they probably never expected to hear the Auburn fight song played on a comb. The students, who had read Mrs. Windham’s journalism memoir Odd-Egg Editor in Professor Ed Williams’ Newswriting class, presented Mrs. Windham with an Auburn T-shirt and were rewarded with a rousing “War Eagle!” in return.
Mrs. Windham formerly worked as a reporter for the Alabama Journal in Montgomery, the Birmingham News, and the Selma Times-Journal, and she spoke with the students about her newspaper experiences, and answered their questions about journalism and storytelling. Both the interviewer and the interviewees became the story, as a Selma Times-Journal reporter arrived to document the visit.
You can see photographs from Kathryn Tucker Windham’s visit with the students at the NewSouth Books Facebook page.
You can also watch a video of Kathryn Tucker Windham teaching the students to play the Auburn University fight song on a comb.
NewSouth Books recently published Kathyrn Tucker Windham’s latest book, the memoir Spit Scarey Ann and Sweat Bees: One Thing Leads to Another. Also available, Alabama, One Big Front Porch and Jeffrey’s Favorite 13 Ghost Stories.