I didn’t have a chance to know Kathryn Tucker Windham on a personal level.

It would always seem that when an activity she was taking part in would occur, I would either be gone or someone else would have been assigned to it.

It’s with a sadness I won’t be able to say I have met the literary giant who lived in Selma all of these years.

Mrs. Windham was the first author I read upon moving here in third grade. Her legendary stories effectively made Gaineswood Manor a frightening drive by on the way to church each day, because Evelyn Carter was not nearly as playful or seemingly as Windham’s poltergeist Jeffrey.

Really, her books kept me out of a lot of places that would have been interesting to visit.

I was no fan of graveyards before I read about Jeffrey and the other ghosts of Alabama, but Windham’s hunting tales of spectors in the historic lands of the Black Belt and beyond relegated me to learning about the sites from history books and her books instead of my own eyes.

To say we have lost a legend is to slight the significance Windham has brought to newspapers, arts and storytellers across the state and even country.

She was a storyteller at heart, no matter what the medium.

Vivid and captivating images rolled out of her camera as much as her pen. Now, as an adult, I can appreciate the tales even more for their imagery. What seemed like a ploy just to scare young children when I was in grade school now comes across as good old-fashioned fun.

While I wasn’t able to meet her in person, the greatness of her as a person still shows itself today, when, every person who has been contacted to speak about her, speaks on her as a great person, not just an author, not a photographer or a great cook (Did I mention her culinary skills?) Mrs. Windham may be gone from us now, but her imprint is all too great for her to be forgotten.