While I was the bookkeeper, one month I sold more televisions that any of the full-time salesmen during a contest therefore I was awarded an all-expenses paid trip for two to Havana Cuba as awarded by the Dumont TV manufacturer. Marty, Lillian, Mom Halabrin, Mary Nell and I had a great weekend in Havana. This was mine and Mary Nell’s first trip overseas. She was 24 and I was 27. We had a luxurious dinner at the Cabana Hotel. When the stage show began Mary Nell and I excused ourselves and took a cab back to our nice hotel. Batista was the president of Cuba and Castro was a rebel hiding out in the mountains at that time. Castro soon caused the Cuba revolution.

Business was very exciting. I built more houses and purchased land for development. My building business was making more profits than Tip Top. I made a bad decision which I have regretted. I invited the Halabrins to merge Tip Top with my construction and land development. I considered Marty to be such a great salesperson and thought that their promotional and sales expertise would result in multiple growth of the building income. Marty and I went to night school to get our Florida Real Estate Brokers License. I passed the first time; Marty failed the test twice. We all talked about real estate, but I was the person carrying the responsibility for land development, home building and sales. We purchased land for a subdivision called Colonial Terrace in Auburndale. We also purchased 20 acres on road to lake hatchineha and considering selling lots. I also kept my office management responsibilities at Tip Top and assisted their sales department. Eugene Nelson Thompson had been hired to assist me with the collection work. He was a great guy, a good friend and did a good job. Nevertheless, I was very busy and did not have much free time at home. Mary Nell took care of the home and the children. We were both very involved in church activities.

In Sept 1961 Tip Top, Inc. purchased land known as Hillcrest Subdivision on Derby Street in Auburndale. Lots 13 to 26 inclusive were surveyed for Martin Halabrin and Dan Winters with intentions of building 11 homes.  Property is located next to railroad tracks, afterwards Wal-Mart built a store nearby across Highway 92.

Zetta and Marvin Dial came to Florida and we sold them one of the new homes located on Lot 14. When they moved back to Logan, we resold the house. Jim and Bonnie Morehead the sister to Betty Yelvington, moved into this house. Jim began working for us mowing the various properties and learned to install ceramic tile. He was a good worker and reported directly to my dad.

After church one Sunday we had open house and the attendance was outstanding. I sold two or three homes that one afternoon. All homes sold quickly at a price of about $10,000 each for a 900 sq. ft. with three bedrooms 1 1/2 baths. Down payment of $300 and low monthly payment terms as the homes were financed with F.H.A.

Other Land Developments:

Land Developments

I was bookkeeper for Tip Top Inc., so I knew there were more than adequate funds to repurchase my stock at the same price I had paid for it about one year earlier. I did not feel the Halabrins had much interest in the home building business, and I was willing to accept land or houses under construction in exchange for my investment in Tip Top Inc.

I typed my resignation offering to continue for up to 30 days. Marty did his best to convince me to withdraw my resignation and stay with the company. We both stood our ground and I made sure all the work in my department was current and up to date. On the 30^th day he called a stockholder meeting after the store closed at 6:00 pm. They did not want me to leave, and they did not want to surrender any cash or real estate to me. They could not force me to stay but they would not repurchase my company stock and they would not transfer to me any of the assets. I was devastated. CRUSHED!  They win. I lose. There were three Halabrins, so they outvoted me three to one. I now realized what a mistake I had made to combine my assets with theirs! Sometime later Gene Thompson told me that the Halabrins had bragged to him prior to the meeting that during the meeting they intended to keep my company car and send me home walking without anything. The car was originally purchase with my personal fund during the time I was in the army, however I had transferred it to the company as part of the purchase of stock.

I pleaded for any of the land or money, so I could continue home building and provide for my wife and three children. None of my suggestions were acceptable to them. Marty finally ordered us all to go home for supper and return one hour later. I felt stressed to the maximum. I shared with Mary Nell, she called our parents requesting that they pray and intercede for me during my desperation. Mary Nell and I knelt by our bed, held hands, and prayed to God in the name of Lord Jesus. My hurt was unbearable. Halabrins had been our friends; I considered them Christians since they were very active in the Grace Lutheran Church however, I felt it would be a mistake to allow them to cause me to remain in their employment and control. I wanted out to direct my own future and spend more time with my wife and family.

At the end of the hour, we resumed the meeting with the Halabrins. They begin to tell me I could keep my car; I could have the 20 acres of unusable land known as “Hillside Acres” and I think that I received about 10% of my investment in cash. I felt as if I was experiencing a miracle as a result of God answering the prayer and softening their hearts. I was thankful to God. Something had happened during our hour of prayer and they were like different people. No, I did not feel like they treated me fairly. They said they must keep all of the developed building sites and houses under construction because they wanted to become homebuilders and would need them. But I was greatly relieved to have a few assets to begin over with.  I believed God would help me rebuild.

During the three years after Eddie was born our savings account balance was never greater than $80. Money was tight, and we never went out to restaurants to eat. Mary Nell cooked most every meal. I do not remember of ever borrowing money from our    parents, credit cards or employers. We just conserved and made our finances work out. As a matter of fact, a couple of times the balance was as low as $5; however, by May 1960 we had accumulated savings of $800.

One day on my home for lunch I stopped to visit a building site of James E. Thomson, the father of Wanda LeRoy, James, Eugene, and Wilburn Thompson. He challenged me to purchase a building site upon which he would build a new house and then we would share the profit that he estimated to be a thousand dollars or so. That sounded wonderful to me realizing my share could be more than one-month salary at Tip Top. I discussed this important situation with Mary Nell.  We had a choice of taking 90% our life savings of $882 and risking it in a building venture or we could keep our savings and earn 6% which would be about $48 per gain. We thoughtfully agreed to take the risk. I withdrew $800 which reduced our year precious savings account to only $82.

I purchased the building site and JE Thompson built a house on Ave F and 21 St. SW. I entered this home into the Parade of Home which was a first for JE and it sold for cash in a few days.  I think my share of profit was about $1,200 which was 3 times my monthly salary at Tip Top. Was I excited? Yes!  I immediately purchased a couple more lots and these houses also sold quickly.

I located more lots in subdivisions on Holt Road, near 42^nd St & Ave O NW that could be purchased for $800 each. I began pre-selling three-bedroom FHA approved home on the property for a selling price of $9,000.  JE felt that was too cheap and he could not make enough profit, so he released me to build homes without him. He was a true Christian brother and we remained friends as long as he lived. I continued to work full time at Tip Top and managed all the home building at night over the telephone. I was fortunate to hire Ed Bircheat to subcontract providing all the construction labor while I paid the bills. The overhead cost was a very minimal, therefore my profits were greater that my full-time salary at Tip Top.  I now had plenty of income to support my family. Mary Nell quit working at the Herald and became a full-time mom.  I purchased a new Buick La Saber automobile. Life was turning for the better and we were spending more time in church work. Mary Nell was directing the choir and singing special songs at church.

We attended the West Winter Haven Church on 34th St NW where Johnny Wilson had succeeded Lovell Cary as the pastor.  Next was Rev. Baldree who was later followed by Rev. Henry R. Corley. We were so busy we hadn’t spent as much time at church during the first 3 or 4 years of marriage. I became clerk of the church in 1958 under the leadership of Bro. Corley. Rev. T. L. Lowrey came and pitched his tent on the church parking lot.  A windstorm caused him to pack up his tent and continue the services inside the church building. There I met TL who has become a special person in our lives. He stayed in our home. I assisted him and Herb Wineagar in counting the nightly offerings as Mary Nell cooked late night meals for him. His wife Mildred spent at least one night with us in our little home.

My Mom and Dad attended the 7^th & E church of God and later began to attend the 34^th St. church. The children’s church was organized, and my mother and Mary Nell became the directors of this ministry.

We closed in the double carport at our home on Lake Martha and opened it as the office of Dan Winters Builder, Realtor, and Developer. I placed my business sign at the end of the paved alley way; 880 Lake Silver Drive which was much easier for the public to see. We installed air conditioning and carpet in both the house and office. Our parents had never possessed these conveniences and we were thankful to be able to afford them at such a young age.

I bartered with Bill Ogden at Standard Office Supply and gave him two lots in Sun Acres in exchange for an executive desk and a secretarial desk and chairs. Teri had this desk in her office at WinWorld more than 40 years later. I think she has it in the office at her home now for a period of time. This desk has since been moved to Marc O’Neil’s home at 606 Sycamore in Cleveland, TN.

Mary Nell was a true partner in all our activities. I fully depended upon her for advice, input, council, approval and we discuss every major decision. She was consulted on the design of the houses, the choice or all colors and was fully informed. She assisted in all the accounting and office work including the payroll and taxes. We did most of our own legal work such as contracts, notes, mortgages, and loan closings. It was all self-contained in the carport office of our home.

Teri spent lots of time with us in the office. When the phone rang, she tried to be the first person to answer it. Before she was two years of age, she could answer the phone “Hello, Dan Winters office”; then hand the receiver to me.  She liked to set up on the top of my large desk and talk on the phone. She grew up being an active part of the business. Most of the neighborhood children were boys and they were older than Teri, so she was quick to leave them in the play yard to come and inform her parents or Mildred of any activities that she did not approve of. She liked to establish the rules for them to play by.

Mary Nell and I worked and lived in the same area nearly 24 hours every day from then on. I never tired of her being by my side. The office opened directly into the utility room of the house, so she was constantly going back and forth between caring for the children, the housekeeping and the office work. One wall of the office was glass sliding doors that opened onto the concrete double driveway which had a basketball goal and was a great area to ride tricycles of play. The children spent time in the office as they desired. We had a 48-inch-high fence surrounding the back yard and the children could also play on the driveway and the large front yard. It was several hundred feet to where public traffic was on Lake Silver Drive. There was a large open field next door that many years later became the parking lot for the Winter Haven Hospital. Our good neighbors Marty & Lillian had two sons and our children played in their yard and enjoyed the lakefront privileges. We looked after each other’s children. Judge Summerland’s, his daughter Ms. Davis and her sons Parker and Phillip played with our children. Another playmate was Doug Alexander the Hamilton’s grandson. We had a great neighborhood. The children all interacted well and had free access to come and go from one yard to the other. We had a large German shepherd dog. The Halabrins had a dog or two. We built a large swimming pool and all the neighborhood kids enjoyed it as it was the only one available. We built a screened in patio on the rear of the house with terrazzo floor and a large bar-b-que pit and a picnic table. The neighbor children often joined in swimming and eating with our children.

During the Cuba missile crisis, we built a duplex underground fallout shelter with the Halabrins to protect our families in the event of a nuclear attack.

We hired a housekeeper or “Nanny” for our three children. Teri was one year old, Donnie three, and Ed was six. Mildred Davis became an important person in our lives as she continued in that position during these next 42 years.

Occasionally we would take our children to the “Fish Camp”; a small resort beyond Auburndale where we caught fish and could have a day or two of family time; relaxing without the telephone, subcontractors and customers calling upon us. It was only a 20 minutes’ drive from our home.

Nancy and Ron lived in Sarasota, and we loved to visit them over the weekend and go to the beach at Siesta Key.  They would often visit us in Winter Haven. Later we began to rent a place at the Pass Apartments on the north end of Long Boat Key. Ron worked for Florida Light and Power and later transferred to their office in Miami FL. Nancy and Mary Nell were very close friends as well as sister in laws.

One year we all went to Longboat Key and rented several apartments for one week and had a great time. Ron Mixon’s mother and dad, my mother and dad, and most of my brothers and sisters with their families all fished, cooked, swam and had a fun time together. For my work I traveled back and forth from Winter Haven several times that week.

Our parents and other relatives expressed pride in our accomplishments. We were very appreciative of what God was doing in our lives. We were thankful to God and wanted to share our success with our families. Mary Nell was a great cook, and she would prepare meals and invite our parents and others over for a meal most Saturday nights or Sunday. My mother loved to come after her work on Saturday and share the steak, baked potato, and the Greek salad. Of course, we would go to our parents’ home to eat many Sundays. We seldom went to a fast-food place or a restaurant.

We purchased a 15-foot flat bottom fishing boat and had some great times on the lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The children learned to swim and to water ski at young ages. We invited relatives to join us, and we had many guests. Our home was a gathering place for the family, friends, and ministers.

Our lives were happier than most people I knew.

I continued to build homes on various vacant lots, subcontracting the carpentry work to Ed Bircheat. Financing included Farmers Home Administration and Federal Housing Administration.

Dad began to work for me some. Records indicate he was there in 1963 and reduced to half day when business was slow in June 1966. He resigned during the time our office was located at 843 17^th Terrace in October 1966. He would visit the construction sites and keep me informed. We installed the CB Citizen Band radio in two or three of the vehicles for faster communication. Our call letters were CBI-2222. Call codes included 10.4 was I understand or O.K.; 10.20 was where are you located.

MOBILE HOME DEALER AND MANUFACTURER (1968-1970) (AGE 35)

In 1962 my mother died, and I resigned my position at Tip Top TV, I acquired the 20 acres tract of land near Dundee Florida and named it Hillside Acres. According to the survey dated July 24, 1962, there were 142 parcels of land 36 feet wide and 143 feet deep.

June 1966, I developed 20 acres on Gerber Dairy Road into 335 small parcels of land and put in clay streets and named it Green Acres.

A few people who purchased lots in Hillside Acres or Green Acres soon moved mobile homes onto their land

In December 1967 I began to develop Mobile Home Village on the old Lakeland to Winter Haven Road. To enhance the selling of vacant land west of the canal we decided to offer mobile homes and land as a package. I wanted my business to include selling mobile homes. I thought more people would be interested in buying these parcels of land if they could also buy a new mobile home as a part of the transaction.

From my prior banking experience at Tip Top TV, I knew how the banks sometimes offer a dealer floor plan to finance your inventory and how the offer a time payment plan on large items.

I approached several mobile home dealers proposing for them to consign a mobile home to us: to be placed on our land and we would handle the sale of the package allowing them to keep the selling price of the mobile home. They refused because floor plan, insurance etc. I decided to try to become a mobile home dealer.

I had recently purchased a few houses from Knox manufactured homes factory in Lafayette, Indiana. They provided financing for the home buyer.  Their representative visited me at 880 Lake Silver and, to my surprise their mobile home factory in Thomasville Georgia agreed for me to become one of their mobile home dealers

Knox offered to ship me four mobile homes with an invoice to pay within 30 days. During the 30 days I arrange for the Exchange Bank of Winter Haven to provide the money on a dealer floor plan program.

Nancy and Ron had lived in Sarasota and then in Miami. They wanted to come back to Winter Haven. During a family visit to the Mixon’s in Miami they caught my excitement and decided to join us. Ron Mixon resigned him job with Florida Light and power to join Dan Winters Corp. Ron and his wife, my sister Nancy, moved to Avenue L NW in Winter Haven, near the high school, assuming an unpaid mortgage balance on a home I had taken as trade in.

Things moved fast and we soon had a grand opening of Mobile Home Village offering our package of new mobile homes and land. We were off to a good start’ however I soon found out I needed to get a dealers’ licenses and a Florida sales tax number.

This we did without delay. Soon thereafter, Ron and I felt sales would be better on a downtown location on 3^rd St and Ave D SW, which is Highway 17. We opened this sales lot under the name   of Dan Winters Mobile Home Display Center. We soon became one of the Knox Homes factory’s top 10 dealers.

Being one of the top ten dealers we attended the annual show at Knox in Thomasville, GA. To our surprise, the sales manager began to apologize for the 10% -20% increases in the prices. Half bluffing, I said “Well, that’s no big deal, I could build mobile homes myself if I had a blueprint.” Calling my bluff, he got me a set of the blueprints. Returning to Winter Haven I began to search for a building to set up a mobile home manufacturing facility, although I had no previous mobile home manufacturing experience except a few walk-thru visits in a few factories.

We rented the old Bagwell Lumber yard building on the Rifle Range Road in Wauneta and began manufacturing mobile homes. We formed a separate corporation, Cypress Homes Corporation, to manufacture a Cypress brand and a Dandy brand mobile home.

The mobile home factory was located on the Rifle Range Road in Wahneta about 5 miles from town. The Dan Winters Mobile Home Display Center was located at 3’^d Street and Avenue D SW, which was 5 blocks from the Dan V\/inters office on the corner of 2’^d Street and Bates Avenue SW. As president it kept me busy shuffling between these three locations.

Aunt Evelyn Hale came to work for me to assist with the office work. She said she did not have any prior experience, but I agreed to train her.

My sister Nancy joined us to help with designing the interior of the mobile homes. Ron split his time between the factory and the retail mobile home sales lot.

People in the mobile home industry quickly informed me I should have a general manager to run the production line and a purchasing agent to order the materials. I hired an experienced manager Arnold Wolfgang from Ocala, who moved by himself into a small trailer that I provided for him next to the Cypress Homes office. He could draw floor plans and was acquainted with all of the major material suppliers who were mostly located in the Ocala FL area. Elkhart Indiana and Ocala FL were recognized as the cities where most mobile homes were being manufactured.

I used Ed Bircheat and his construction crews to run the assembly line. We hired several other local people such as Bobby Tillman and John Holloway. Amidst lots of trial and error we were eventually manufacturing one house per day, 12 feet wide and 60 feet long complete with furniture, appliances, cabinets, draperies and carpet. Typical sales price was four to five thousand dollars. Experience people in the mobile home industry could not believe that we could get this much production out of this old lumber yard building that had dirt floors and was in very poor condition.

Most homes were sold to a dealer before we costumed manufactured them; however, if we didn’t have a home sold when it came off our production line, we delivered it to our Mobile Home Display Center in Winter Haven. This kept the factory workers employed however it created stress on the sales department to get the home sold.

When sale became slow for a period of time and the inventory was reaching it maximum limit at our retail lot; I began to panic; I sent Ron Mixon, Arnold Wolfgang and Ed Bircheat on the road calling on every dealer in the state. I said do not come back to the office until you sell some homes; we cannot run the production line without a presold home. Tony Lyle a large dealer in Brandon placed an order with Ron subject to us adding a small third and fourth bedroom which we referred to as a Jack and Jill bedroom. I was grateful to God for answering our prayers and providing the sales.

Conflicts soon began to develop between Bircheat and Wolfgang. Ed had worked for me many years; however, Wolfgang felt he had far more mobile home manufacturing experience and bragged that he was the only one who knew how to draw the floor plans that he kept locked in his desk drawer. He had a bad temper. He bragged that these drawing talents were his job security. When I found out about this, I immediately fired Wolfgang and began to draw the floor plans myself.

Robert “Bob” Adams and Don Stephens contacted me one day inquiring of Business Management Consultants. I had already stared Southern Guaranty in 1971 by this time. They both had their college degrees and were working as vice presidents of Florida Tile Corporation in Lakeland. They realized the potential in Manufactured Housing and were interested in an active ownership and management of a company. They saw where I had created company known as Business Management Consultants, Inc. They had very little money, but they assured me that had the time and talent to make a success of the manufacturing business. I considered this my opportunity to unload some responsibility and potential liability. I sold them and another investor 75% of the Cypress Homes and I resigned as an officer, and they became President and Vice President and were responsible for all the operation.  This allowed me to devote more time to my mortgage banking firm, Southern Guaranty Corporation.

The old factory on Rifle Range Road was operating at full capacity and Cypress Homes desired to expand. Cypress Homes wanted to build a new factory and depended upon my financial statement for financing any new building.

The abandoned runway at the Bartow Airbase was chosen as the most suitable building site to build a new factory. I negotiated with the City of Bartow airport authority to lease me 5 acres of land on the runway for a 10-year period plus three additional successive 10 years periods.

I also negotiated with Florida Steel Builder to construct a new modern, customized mobile home manufacturing building at a cost of $100,000 cash.

The City of Bartow owned the land and wanted me to agree to a 10-year lease and they build and own the building. I held out for renewal options on the land of up to 40 years and for me to own the building. They said they always built and leased back to the tenant. I realized the future value of the properties and wanted to own the building. Finally, in June 1970, the City of Bartow reluctantly consented to my demands for me to own the building on their land with a 40-year lease.

Dan Winters Corp. building was subleased to Cypress Homes Corp on April 27, 1970, for $1,575 per month for a total of $189,000 for 10 years. We signed a contract with Florida Steel Building on May 11, 1970, for them to construct the new factory building for $100,000.  I borrowed 100% of the funds with a Tax-Free Municipal Bond funding arranged by the City of Bartow. The lease payments from Rainbow were more than enough to pay the bond payments. At the end of 10 years, I owned the property free and clear as the bond debt had been paid. Rainbow has gone out of business, and I rented the factory to Chuck Weeder at Homes of Merit.

On Aug 5, 1970, I paid the attorney $708.50 for 20 hours of work to provide the bond issue legal work.

On January 30, 1971, I sold my stock in Cypress Homes Stock to Robert Adams, Don Stephens, and Edward Burkhardt for the net amount of $20M. I wanted out of the manufacturing business.

September 8, 1971, Dan Winters Corp. allowed Cypress Homes to merge and assign the lease on the factory to Inland Systems a division of Inland Steel Co. in Ohio.

December 8, 1971, Dan Winters Corp. settled with Fla Steel Builder on the construction of the building and wrote a check for $93,016; plus $8,127 to the City of Bartow; plus $2,384 for other costs.

August 13, 1973, the city of Bartow approved for Ray Allen and Associates from Clearwater to sublease the building for a period. They vacated o/a 1975.

October 16, 1974 – Sept 22, 1975, Robert Urso, Frank Komeny began Rainbow Manufacturing Company. They had previously managed a factory for Redmond Industries, a major mobile home manufacturing company with a plant south of Lake Wales. I personally signed a bank note with them for $150,000 so Rainbow could have some working capital. In May 1977, the Citrus & Chemical unpaid note was $44,102. Inventory was $34,479. The bank was paid in full although some creditors were not paid when Rainbow went out of business. The timing was bad with interest rates too high for Mobile Home Financing.

As a landlord, I took possession of my building again.

1976 subleased to Paul and Myrtle Latham for a movie studio. Their plan did not materialize. I took possession of the building again. Soon I rented the building to Inland System a company in Ohio.

Inland System vacated the building and filed for bankruptcy. The final notice of hearing was held in Dayton Ohio on October 6, 1977. Charles Chilton and Dan Winters attended the hearing. We flew to Dayton and spent the night in Robert Chilton’s apartment. This was the first time I met Robert who was Charley’s brother.

On November 9, 1977, Home of Merit became my tenant with a 2-year lease @ $2,000 per month followed by 2 years @ $2,500 per month.

As a part of estate planning, I gave the mobile home manufacturing property to Charles R. Chilton as trustee for my children in the name of Winters Children Trust.

I was 46 years old. On June 27, 1979, Mary Nell and I shared with our children and grandchildren by creating and funding the Winters Children Trust. (WCT)

December 1980 Homes of Merit purchased the building from Winters Children Trust for cash.

Jack E. Winters as Successor Trustee of Byron E. Winters Irrevocable Trust dated December 29, 1982, held a 12.375% position.

Jack E. Winters as Successor Trustee of Brent L. Winters Irrevocable Trust dated December 29, 1982, held a 12.375% position.

Oct 30^th. 1989 Mary Nell Winters Family Limited Partnership was formed. Jack E. Winters, as Successor Trustee of Winters Children Trust, dated June 27, 1979, held a 74.25% position.

Winters Children Trust, which was dissolved in July 1996, previously held a 75% remainder men position in MNWFLP, however, on July 25^th, 1996, the 75% ownership previously held by WCT was transferred to the accounts of Roy, Donald, and Teri.

A record of this WCT transaction can be found in the storage bin in Brent’s warehouse with the other company records.

April 1968, I read a classified ad in the local paper where Sylvester Schutt wanted to sell 10 acres of land and grove on Cypress Garden Road, for $49,500.  I negotiated and paid him $5,049 cash plus $9,305 in my rights to Agreements for deeds (Accounts Receivable) plus $35,145 payable $1,405 per annum with 6% interest. On July 14, 1969, I assigned the agreement for deed of 865 Lake Shore Way home as partial payment to Mr. Schutt. I also received the 1967-1968 Valencia crops which could be harvested the next month. The price seemed a little high, but the terms were excellent. Highway 27 was nearby, and Florida Cypress Gardens was only 3 miles away. I perceived that Winter Haven was growing in that direction.

The state of Florida paid me $12,325 for the right of way for the boulevard on May 13, 1977. $5,000 was applied to the debt to Mr. Schutt. In February 1981 I sold a 200’ X 200’ parcel of this property to Tampa Electric Corp for a substation site for $40,000.

March 1982 paid off the mortgage loan to Mr. Schutt. 

June 15, 1982, I donated one 200’ X 200’ parcel of this land to the New Life Worship Center where Larry Danley was pastor.  Arnold Silvert, appraiser valued the parcel at $40,000 dollars. They later purchased an adjoining parcel from Grace Luther Church.

The Articles of Incorporation of New Life Worshipping Center, Inc. were amended on January 13^th, 1983, to include ARTICLE XI DISSOLUTION “In the event of dissolution of the church, other than incident to merger or consolidation, all of the remaining assets and property of the church shall, after necessary expenses thereof shall be distributed to THE GENERAL COUSCIL OF THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD, INC., of Springfield, Missouri, a Missouri Corporation.” This was adopted and signed on signed January 13, 1983.Larry Danley, President and Elder; Herman Harrell, Vice President and Elder; Ronald Boss, Secretary and Elder; Stephen Manning, Treasurer and Elder; Michael Albright, Director and Elder.

Pastor Voss disregarded this provision and disposed of the property, and it is now being used as a K-12 school. A Mac Donald restaurant is located next door.

Good that Murphy Oil did not exercise their option to purchase the corner from me for $50,000 as per agreement dated December 11, 1980. Also, in 1983 I offered all of this property for $676,000. Perhaps God was looking out for my good in not allowing it to sell sooner.

In May 1983 Thriftway did a market feasibility study for a supermarket on the property and reported the area was not populated sufficient for that purpose.

A major drug store paid me $500,000 for one corner lot and they constructed the drug store.

All of the property has sold or now has a value of $1.5 million; therefore, this was the best real estate investment I ever made. The State Farm Insurance has located their regional office nearby and Wal-Mart has begun a super store nearby also.

I decided to become a lender for mobile home purchases. I named the new business Southern Guaranty Corporation.

From 1971 until 1977 we originated mobile home loans and sold them to the commercial bank and Savings & Loan Associations in Florida. 

I negotiated with our local bank; SGC would originate mobile home loans for banks with SGC providing and processing all the paperwork.  Then SGC endorsed them over to the bank.

SGC would originate the loan at 8% interest rate. We would guarantee the repayment of the loan to the bank

SGC got two percent on an eight- percent loan.  The bank got six percent.  All the bankers had to do was to provide the money and accept the monthly payments. 

If a buyer took out a ten-year loan, SGC would make twenty percent over the period of the loan; however, we left a portion of the money on deposit with the bank as a guaranty against any future credit losses.

SGC applied with Foremost Insurance Co for credit insurance coverage that protected our bank in event of a customer default. This caused the bank to be comfortable with the arrangement.

Together with the mobile home profit, the insurance commission, and the land profit we were doing good. I could hardly believe anyone could make this much money.

To provide space for a Southern Guaranty Office, Dan Winters Corporation opened a doorway or pass thru and converted the other downstairs apartment at 222 2^nd Street into 4 additional offices. I occupied the front office with the double French doors looking out and providing a view of the street. We were now occupying the entire downstairs and were renting the upstairs to residential purposes.

Mary Nell and I shared the same room; the receptionist was in the front room and a Salesman in the back room. Mary Nell and I always worked the business jointly. Our children could visit freely. We loved working together and being together all the time.

Sothern’s first employee Paula was not qualified for the responsibility. She spent most of her time writing notes organizing the work with little time left to execute the work. She would paste notes on her arm and purse to remind her of the things she needed to do. She didn’t last long.

We contacted a person who was highly recommended because of her experience in motor vehicle financing, titles, liens etc. I hired Charlotte Toney as the office manager of Southern Guaranty. She was a “God Sent”. She was another one of those special people who contributed to the success of Southern. She drove every day from Plant City to Winter Haven. She was a near perfect employee and a joy to work with. Charlotte’s signature appears on the corporate charter dated April 30,1971. She served as corporate secretary. I consider Charlotte as one of the special people in my life. Nine years later in Oct 1980 she resigned and married Bill Ryals.

Lee Warren was another excellent employee. He came to Southern on December 31, 1971 and retired after 15 years of service on December 31, 1986. He previously worked for about 25 years for Seaboard Finance Co and retired with them before joining Southern Guaranty Corp. Lee was the loan underwriter.

Dec 1971 SGC reported profit for first 7 months of operation was $76,327. Capital invested was $1,000. Remarkable!  Best profit I had ever experienced.

Financing was so profitable I soon decided that mobile home mortgage banking was where I should be spending most of my efforts.

In June 1977 SGC was approved to originate loans under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA-Title 1 program), and the Veterans Administration (VA) Mobile home lending program. These agencies provided some insurance to the lender in the event the buyer defaulted.

Southern Guaranty applied and was approved as Government National Mortgage Association lender under the (GNMA) program. As a result, we could package the FHA and VA mobile home loans and create a GMNA security. The security was guaranteed by GNMA and sold to various major lenders on wall street. This provided us an unlimited amount of money to loan to mobile home purchasers.

SGC obtained authority to issue GNMA securities and sell them to major investors on Wall Street.

Bill Ryals began to work for Southern Guaranty in February 1979. Bill was very experienced in Mobile Home Lending and was a real boost to the management team. He knew many of the Florida dealers. Bill was a very nice person and a good employee. He resigned in October 1980.

March 1979 SGC broke all prior records and originated 103 new mobile home loans.

As the company grew, we remodeled the upstairs and made 10 additional offices which served us until June 1979 when we moved all operations to 500 Lake Howard Drive.

Southern Guaranty was growing. The Continental Can Corporate Office Building on Lake Howard was vacant and for sale. One day I mentioned to Mary Nell how much I liked the lakefront office building and that if I did not already own the 222 2^nd Street building, I would consider purchasing it. Mary Nell quickly suggested that we buy the lakefront that we liked and sell the 2^nd Street building. That was a good idea and so we did just that. SGC move to 500 Lake Howard Drive in June 1979.

March 1980 Jim Irwin joined SGC. Flagship Bank of Miami was the primary provider of funds for Southern Guaranty. Jim Irwin was one of their Vice Presidents. He spent many years in New York and worked for Chemical Bank. He was a professional banker and a real gentleman. During my visit to Flagship Bank in Coral Gables, Miami, he appeared to be intruded by my story of success at Southern. He was becoming disenchanted with the situations in the big city of Miami, so he came to work with Southern Guaranty. It was great to have a real professional banker on our management team. He began in March 1980 as the Executive Vice President.

Jim Irwin resigned in February 1983 and went to work for Countryside.

Bill Ryals had served as one of the VP of Southern Guaranty. He resigned in June 1980 and opened his own mobile home dealership, Realto, in New Port Richey, FL.  Three months later at the end of September 1980 Charlotte resigned and they were soon married. It was reported to me that they resigned because they knew I would disapprove of their relationship considering Bill’s marriage to Cheryl.  Their resignations were a big disappointment to men. They were both valuable employees to Southern.

Robert Rawls was hired to fill the office manager position when Charlotte left. Things were never the same without Charlotte in that position.

Carroll had served as a bank officer at the Bank at Lake Wales and had handled some of our mobile home loans. He came to work for Southern and was appointed as a VP when Bill Ryals left.

I received a phone call from a competitor in Houston who invited me to joint venture with him in mobile home lending. He had recently opened 3 high volume offices and was short of operating capital. After visiting with him in Houston and inquiring of his reputation at the banks it was determined he was a “flake” and bad news. In desperation he decided to close up his operation and invited us to hire his managers and take over his office leases.

Bill Bradley was the manager of the Houston office. Bill had many years of experience and had served as president of the Texas Mobile Home Dealer Association. Bill and Nona in Little Rock Arkansas also had good experience. We opened these offices during the summer of 1981. I thought Bill Bradley was a great guy. 

Feb 1981 SGC doubled the size of the building on Lake Howard and hired additional people.

August 14, 1981, SGC opened an office in Little Rock, Ark., managed by Bill Church.

Ed Winters was listed in the minutes of Southern Guaranty Corp. as Assistant Vice President and Secretary.

In March of 1982 we opened the office in Arlington, TX, and in September SGC opened the office in Thomasville, Ga.

SGC purchased the adjoining land on Lake Howard for $350,000 and began construction of a new office building. Some of the SGC people were working from two different portable offices; we placed one on the parking lot and one on the south side of 500 Lake Howard offices.

September 2, 1982, my advisors Attorneys Charles Chilton and Joe Sharit realized we were growing at such a rapid pace; I needed help with the management and planning for the future. We were beginning to consider going public as a company. They knew an outstanding professional man named Ed Kelly who had served on the board of several public corporations and presently owned the controlling interest in Steak and Shake restaurants. Ed Kelly agreed to sit on the Southern board with a minority stockholder interest. He was to guide us as an advisor toward going public. He agreed to serve for a two-year period beginning Oct 1982. His fee was $3,500 per month plus a participation in the stock offering. He maintained an office in New York City. He soon introduced us to William Sword and Company to consider a public stock offering. Ed Kelly and Joe Sharit were serious board members who really challenged us. Kelly resigned in March 1985.

 The SGC board of directors urged the hiring of additional competent senior management to assist with the responsibilities of the fast-growing company. This was mandatory before we would be attractive for a buy out or a public offering.

Gary Klien was an officer of the local Flagship Bank. In August 1982 he joined Southern and served as Regional Vice President and managed the Florida office for SGC.

Ed Winters was assigned the job position of loan guaranty officer reporting to Jim Robinson the comptroller. This was to assure that all loan documents complied with governmental regulations.

Donnie began with Southern during this year and was a field representative under Gary Klein the VP of Florida. I gave his wife Emily my Chevrolet car, and she was hired to work at Southern. She only worked a few days because she didn’t like it that one of the other employees told her they needed to use the computer terminal.

We broke ground for the new 4 story office building on Lake Howard in Winter Haven in October 1982. 

    500 Lake Howard Drive NW Winter Haven, FL office bldg.

News Release in November ‘83 – Dan Winters, President of Southern Guaranty Corporation, with corporate offices at 500 East Lake Howard Drive, Winter Haven, was recently elected Vice President of the National Manufactured Housing Finance Association of Washington, D.C.

The association is comprised of lenders in the manufactured housing industry across the nation whose objective is to promote the awareness of housing needs nationwide to the Veterans Administration and Federal Housing Association and to promote better lending practices in the government lending programs.

As Chairperson of the Retail Finance Committee of the National Manufactured Housing Finance Association, Mr. Winters recently gave testimony in Washington before the Subcommittee of Housing and Memorial Affairs of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, U. S. House of Representatives. In this testimony, he expressed the need of improvements and continuance of the Federal Home Lending Program by the Veterans Administration.

Chilton urged me to unload some of my responsibilities and contingent liabilities. I sold water system to Peckenpaul and then he reneged closing the purchase.

Gary Klien’s wife divorced him, and he was devastated. He resigned in December 1983. Mary Nell talked with Gary about the situation and expressed her concern.

 Phil McCain wanted to appoint Ed Winters to fill Klien’s position as VP in charge of the Florida office. Phil assured me he felt Ed could handle the responsibility in spite of his bipolar disorder. The board approved the appointment.

Interest rates had been the highest in history causing many of the Veterans to have large mortgage payments. Delinquencies were high, and some people abandoned their mobile homes and the VA had to pay any loan deficiency. Attempts to refinance at a lower rate were hampered by VA regulations requiring a current VA appraisal, additional closing cost etc. The VA was backlogged and any appraisal by them would result in a few months delay. Catch 22. I was aware that with real estate you could change a legal document by recording a corrective deed modifying some of the terms. If it worked with real estate, I could not understand why a mobile home loan could not be legally modified, avoiding refinancing cost.  Somehow, I came up with the idea leaving all the documents in place and simply modifying the interest rates and lowering the monthly payment. I had a tough job convincing the Veterans Administration to change their ruling and not require a new appraisal. With the help of the legal counsel of the NMNFA we got the VA office in Washington, DC to change the regulation. We began to modify existing loans to lower our delinquencies and avoid foreclosures.

SGC Loan Volume 1978 to 1983:

As of Dec 31, 1985, SGC was servicing 18,095 loans with Principal balances of $253,118,950. Gross servicing fees were 3.25% or $8.2 million annually before we paid the Government National Mortgage fee and Federal Housing Administration Credit Insurance fees.

Phil McCain as EVP was in charge of the day-to-day operation. In February he selected Ed Winters to become the VP of Florida office. Ed was also approved to execute GNMA securities. These were both very responsible positions.

In January Ed Kelley reported on his meeting the prior month with Bill Carson of William Sword & Co. on the procedures for selling and/or transferring some of SGC assets to Winters personally. In April Wm Sword Co. visited our office Winter Haven and was proceeding toward a public offering.

My daughter had recently graduated from Lee University and came to work at SGC.

Phil McCain recommended that all collections be moved from the regional office to the Winter Haven office to create better control over the delinquencies. Tommy Gause joined SGC in April 1984 as Corporate Loan Servicing Director. Teri began hiring and training of staff of collectors in Winter Haven.

In May Ed came to my office and admitted to me that he was using nonprescription drugs and alcohol.  I ask Chilton to research available treatment centers and he recommended Hazelden as the best in the country. Ed went to Hazelden in Minnesota for their 28 days in house drug & alcohol treatment program. Deborah flew up to join in one of the sessions with him. He had a drink of alcohol on the plane on his way home. I was devastated and very disappointed over his actions. With these type actions how could he execute the responsibility as a father and as an employee?

Ron Mixon came to work part-time as my personal assistant; primarily to help me with Ed’s situations. Ron was living in Ft. Myers and selling real estate on commission, so he was free to travel to Winter Haven a couple of day each week as needed.

The value of our mobile home loans in process fluctuated with the price of GNMA bonds. The price of U. S. Government GNMA Bond market would move or change price with any slight change in interest rates. One-point move in the bond market could cause a change in value of the mobile home loans we had in process. 1% of $15million = $150,000.  One day in June the GNMA market moved down 2% which created approximately $200,000 price swing in a 10-million-dollar pipeline of loans in process. SGC tried to keep some hedge protection in place, but it was very difficult; that is why Ernie Keuhler was working full time on this task.

On June 6, 1984, Mary Nell and I celebrated our 30^th wedding anniversary. I was very worried about loses in the market value of our mobile home loans in process as a result from changes in the bond market.

I was upgrading all of the SGC computer equipment and was willing to give the old computers to Church of God Seminary and Lee University. David Crick came to Winter Haven for several weeks of training on the Wang Computers so he could set them up at the Seminary. According to a letter later received dated January 30, 1986, from Sonny Chambly, director of development for Lee College I caused SGC and Wang to donate additional computer equipment valued at $45,000 to Lee.

Mr. Thompson and my board were teaching me the necessities of delegate responsibilities and letting those officers report to the board. Learning to trust others to operate the day-to-day business activities was necessary to allow me time to properly direct the company at the fast pace it was growing.

That included leaving it up to VP Phil McCain and Ed Winters to take care of any FL office issues. Southern had a promotional booth at the Florida Mobile home show in Tampa that year. I did not attend. Ed and others from the Florida office did. Donnie’s wife Emily was said to have drunk and talked too much. Ed got upset over her conduct.

August 1984 Momma King had diagnosed with cancer and had a mastectomy.

September 4, 1984, I had spent lots of time in preparation for a presentation to sell SGC to Glendale Savings and Loan in California. Mary Nell and I flew to Glendale to negotiate selling SGC.  During the 3 p.m. meeting on Wednesday we were very impressed with each other. On Sept 19^th they agreed we would have same benefits as Glendale employees, and I would report directly to Keith Russell SVP. Benefits plan would include Bonus, medical expenses, life insurance etc. I was to continue any discussions with Keith and by end of September we were to have a contract signed ready for a closing by Jan 1^{st, 1985}.

Sept 4, 1984, Don Winters resigned from Southern. This was a surprise and shock to me. As his father I have wished many times I had known better how to negotiate a better situation for my son, whom I love very much. I was somewhat in a whirlwind and life was different from what I had ever experienced. How was I supposed to act to cause my children to mature and be responsible citizens? I had ridden with Donnie one day on his job at Southern; however, my advisors were instructing me to allow the company to operate without me being involved in the day-to-day operations where others were responsible. Donnie did not make me aware of any problems or difficulties. I knew Ed had attempted to reprimand him over Emily’s conduct at the state mobile home meeting in Tampa and Donnie was sometimes late for work.  Don resigned from SCG without mentioning anything to me; it may be that Ed more or less fired him.

On October 1, 1984, I wrote memo to myself as to what I planned to do:

Plan 1 – Sell SGC to Glendale, a financially strong savings and loan bank.

Alternate plan: Scale down the business and withdraw more earned profits.

On October 2nd Mary Nell and I flew to Glendale, California. We agreed to sale SGC to Glendale Federal with 50% of the price upfront plus 50% of the profits for the next 5 years plus a nice salary for me to run the company. End of December was the proposed closing date. I thought this a good plan and I could receive a nice amount and deposit it into my personal retirement and not be subject to future business risk. Also, I could share in the profits for 5 years which I expected to be substantial

Tommy Gause was sent from the Winter Haven office to visit the various SGC regional offices to verify quality control in preparation for the sale to Glendale. 

(Note: Perhaps God somehow knew that this success was more than was best for my future, so he prevented me from continuing and changed the direction of my life. I believe God knows best and redirected me on my pathway.)

October 5, 1984, was a dark Friday. (1) IRS began an audit of Southern Guaranty which lasted 7 years. (2) Attorneys in Georgia filed a lawsuit against the VA and SGC. Our attorneys did not consider this as anything to be worried about since VA set the interest rates. SGC was only abiding by the VA rules. (3) Tommy Gause reported that Keith Bradley, an employee in the Houston office had misappropriated some company funds.

On October 22, 1984, Phil McCain briefed the board concerning recent developments in Houston. Keith Bradley had embezzled about $10,000 of company funds. His dad Bill Bradley was the Vice President and in charge of the SGC office in Houston. They had made excuses and apologies and made the missing funds good. Tommy also reported to Phil that he discovered some fraudulent credit reporting by the Houston credit bureau; it was all a big mess.  The FBI was already investigating because the VA and FHA were federal lending institutions. Tommy said the FBI agents informed him confidentially that it was an ongoing investigation involving the Mafia and was all headquartered in New Orleans. They warned him to be careful. Tommy said he went to his hotel room and the next morning his car had been ransacked and the tires blown out on his car. The SGC audit papers from the Houston office were missing and found scattered on the parking lot of the hotel. Tommy felt very bad and suspected he had somehow been drugged by one of the mafia agents. Later we found this all to be a BIG LIE.

Phil further falsely reported that a big black automobile drove up to at his home in Winter Haven. Two men in black trench coats and hats rang the doorbell and Mrs. McCain was afraid to go to the door. She phoned her husband Phil at the SGC office and by the time he arrived home the men could not be located. Phil suspected the men were somehow with the Mafia and related to what was happening to Tommy Gause and the Houston investigation. This whole situation was bazaar! 

Tommy called Phil several times that day, afraid for his life and wanting permission to return to Winter Haven. A call the local FBI from Florida failed to provide any insight to the situation. 

There were too many things on my plate. Who could I send to Houston to take care of the situation?  I considered it too dangerous to send any of my immediate family members there. Ed had enough problems of his own. It was too bazaar to believe. I had no answer or better solution, so I choose to close the Houston office rather than take risk of someone crossing up with the Mafia and perhaps getting killed.

I knew the closing of the Houston office was a serious move. The SGC personnel in Winter Haven and the SGC people in Houston expressed deep regrets over the unfortunate situations that had happened.

We sent a large semi-trailer to Houston and returned all the records, files and office equipment to Winter Haven.

During this board meeting on October 22 the board had conference call with Attorney Wick Knox in Georgia and Attorney Harvey Weiner in Washington DC regarding the class action lawsuit claiming the VA established interest rates were illegal.

I had a hard decision to make…. I advised Glendale Federal and advised Wm Sword Company of these latest events and put all negotiation with them on hold. They told me to let them know when the issues had been resolved so we could proceed with a sale of SGC.

October 25, 1984 – I was elected to serve as President of the National Manufactured Housing Finance Association. 

Class Action lawsuit claimed that Georgia state law prohibited motor vehicle financing in Georgia exceeding 12% a.p.r.  Some of the VA insured loan originated by SGC had been processed at more than 12 a.p.r.   Lawyers claim federal government was exempt from state government in this case. The lawsuit was tried in court and the judge ruled in favor of SGC. The class appealed the case to supreme court, and they overturned the ruling. (several years later the case was settled in favor of SGC.)

Our lawyers became very concerned of the risk from Class Action. They could not assure me of any results of the various pending court actions. I had to weigh the risk. While listening to all the counsel I could get I decided it best to reduce some risk in the event things turned for the worst. My main concern was being forced to halt FHA/VA/GNMA halt operations while I was personally guarantying $32 million of credit lines at the banks. If we stopped suddenly…the loans in process could not be sold in adequate bundles to meet the GNMA requirements. I had committed to buy loans at par from the mobile home dealer; however, it usually took several months for me to recover my investment from packaging the loan and creating and selling GNMA securities. During this period of time my investments in the loans in pipeline were subject to fluctuations in value based upon the bond market interest rates. The class action had increased the risk too much. We decided to phase out the origination of new mobile home loans and terminate the need for the bank lines of credit. This would eliminate the need for the subordinated debentures (loans) the board members had granted. SGC would not need the money that supported the bank lines of credit and would repay the board members their loans.

I had considerable assets that were not part of Southern Guaranty Corp. The future monthly service fees on our existing SGC loan portfolio of over $200 million would yield a large monthly income.  I followed the board’s advice and began reducing the overhead cost every way possible.

This directly affected Phil McCain, Tommy Gause and the regional offices. The regional offices were operating primarily for the purpose of originating new loans. Phil passed on the bad news. Tommy was soon gone. It troubled me that with the Exec Vice President was handling the Regional Vice Presidents and all of the day-to-day operations were all outside of my control.

 SGC quickly closed the loan origination office in:

Houston, Texas                      10/15/84

Winston Salem                       10/26/84

Thomasville                            11/23/84

Arlington, TX                           03/01/85

Atlanta, GA                             03/08/85

Little Rock, Arkansas  03/13/85

          Ocala and Jacksonville were also closed.

All the office equipment and loan documents were returned to Winter Haven.

Only the Winter Haven office remained open. To reduce the overhead cost in Winter Haven we vacated the 4^th floor and offered to lease the two top floors to others. These were tough times for all of us.

January 1985

• board plans included paying off the $680,000 subordinated notes to shareholders.
• Officers included McCain, Avsec, Cook, Ed Winters, and Jerome Philyaw
• Carl Richardson came by, and I gave him his choice of office equipment to set up his ministry in an office in Brandon Florida.

Feb 4, 1985, SGC paid off debentures promissory notes dated Sept 21, 1983, to shareholders. Dan $609,078; Joe Sharit $8,121; Charles Chilton $8,121; Ed W. Kelly $71,059.

Dan & Mary Nell wrote check to The First Bankers in amount of $368,628.92.

 March 1985

• Phil McCain departed SGC as he was no longer needed.
• Shelba Godwin died.
• Closed the Atlanta office.
• Ed Kelly resigned from the board.
• Jack Winters stock was repurchased.
• Ed Winters resigned.  Later his doctor told him it was very important for him to work and stay busy, so he returned to SGC on a part time basis until he found a job.
• 12^th to 19^th Dan, Mary Nell, Larry, and Jackie took a vacation in Hawaii spending four nights in Honolulu and three nights in Maui.

Dan and Charles Chilton visited Bill Bradley in Houston. Bill gave us the true story of what happened when Tommy Gause had come to Houston in Sept/Oct 84. Bill’s version was that Gause went to the bars and got drunk. The hotel manager helped Tommy to his room in the drunken condition. Tommy had already damaged the car tires and was unable to walk by himself. Tommy made up the FBI investigation as a big tale to keep us from knowing the facts. The people in SGC Houston office thought Winters knew the truth. They did not realize that we did not know Gause was drunk etc. Until this day I wonder if McCain knew a lot more than he told Winters. What a mistake!  What a shame!Unbelievable to me!!

March 1, 1985

• Beginning in Dec 84 Tom Childers, president of Lender Service negotiated the combining of operations. He mentioned Ron Hurias and Mike Torke names.  Mar 85, Chillders agreed to pay DEW $3,750 per month consulting fee from April 85 to Sep 86. He paid 6 months and then cancelled. March 15, 1985, He paid SGC $32,500 for office equipment at 1745 Phoenix Blvd. Suite 120 in Atlanta.
• March 1985 International Christian Academy was being established by Rev. Jerald Holloway in Manila as a Church of God World Missions project. I think I sent him an offering and then loaned him $5,000.                   

April 5, 1985

• Mary Nell and I met Mike Torke from Kensington during the NMHFA meeting at White Sulphur Springs WV. Fleet Financial owned Kensington Mortgage and Finance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They soon offered to sell me the company because they were becoming concerned of the increased risk of class action lawsuits involving the VA mobile home loans. Any action against Kensington could affect the parent company Fleet Financials’ reputation in the global marketplace.  I began negotiations to acquire Kensington and moving it to Winter Haven.
• SGC purchase the Jason property from Winters Children Trust for $149,000. This removed cash from SGC and transferred it to trust of Ed, Donnie, and Teri.
• Ron Mixon began assisting with Ed and helped me with plans toward the Kensington move. Ron was paid a salary for his services.

I discovered that a lot of profit could be made thru modifying the loans to a lower interest rate. I had recently began modifying loans for SGC customers and found it to be highly profitable. Interest rates were receding from historical highs. We would modify the old loan to a lower interest rate; thus lowering the mobile home buyer’s monthly payment. Then we would purchase the old loan out of an existing GNMA pool at par. We would then include the modified loan in a new GNMA pool with an interest rate higher than the normal market; this we would sell at a price above par. For example, a sale at 2% above par on a million-dollar GNMA pool would yield SGC a $20,000 windfall profit.

June 1985

• Kevin Mixon was married to Robin.

• Joe Sharit resigned from the board.
• I formed a new company Kensington Mortgage and Finance of Florida (KMF). KMF purchased KMF of Wisconsin from Fleet Financial which was one of the 10 largest banks in America.

August 1985 Gulfcoast Finance, Inc. corporate charter was filed with the Secretary of State of Florida.  Stock was owned by Winters Holding Corporation. Dan and Mary Nell were the officers. This company offered small loans to mobile homeowners for the purpose of catching up any delinquent payments on their mobile home loans. Regulations required that a loan be current if it was to be modified under our loan modification program. When we sold Winters Holding Company in September 1987, the sell included Gulfcoast Finance, Inc.

September 1985

• Ed Winters had bad experience very late one night and Deborah phone me with her urgent message.  Jack, Larry, Mary Nell and I rushed to 2122 Edgewater. Ed fled! He drove over an electric transformer at home and then wrecked his car at McDonald Restaurant near Lake Howard.
• He was admitted to Winter Haven hospital for 90 days: then six months disability. During a visit Ron & I had with Dr. Dean Schull he diagnosed Ed with a “borderline personality disorder” which would resurface as a serious problem from time to time. Ed’s condition was pitiful. Mary Nell was so disturbed that she could not bear to visit Ed. I tried to visit him most every day. Later, Ed worked part time for a few months and then full-time beginning June 86. He soon divorced and later moved to Tampa.

August 1, 1985

GO FOR BROKE…Mary Nell and I flew to Milwaukee and meet with the top executives of Kensington. We negotiated:

• To pay them only one dollar for the company
• To leave over $700,000 in the bank account for us to cover future cost.
• Waive out any requirement of a personal guarantee by me or Mary Nell
• Leave the operation in their building for a couple of months until we could make proper arrangements to transport it to Winter Haven.
• This now provided us the opportunity to modify their high interest rate loans and make a large profit.

Charles Chilton announced the stock purchase to all news media. KMF had 18,000 loans in 40 states with outstanding balances of approximately $248 million. Their out standings were about the same as SGC for a combined portfolio of ½ billion dollars.

We completed the construction of the third floor of the 500 E. Lake Howard building.  SGC purchased a larger Wang Computer. We hired and trained additional collection and customer service personnel.

October 6, 1985 – Edna Watson appraised 500 Lake Howard property at $1,391,000. 12/31/1988 valuation was Land 83,200 sq. ft.@ $5.00 sq. ft.= $513,350. Main bldg. 16,600 square feet @ $54.60 = $906,360. Older frame building

3300 square feet @ $21.00 = $69,300. Estimated total value $1,737,766

October 31, 1985 – Bob Randolph and Dan Winters began serious estate planning with consideration of possible various pending legal actions. Bob suggested Dan take a larger salary plus bonus.  Also increase the reserve for losses for pending Mobile Home repossessions. 

1. Winters Holding Corporation formed October 31, 1985, with 81,450 shares of SGC Stock.; Filed Nov 7, 1985, H84477:

January 14, 1986, Employers ID number 59-2615026 was Issues. 

2. November 6, 1985 – SGC Shareholders transferred 81,450 shares to a newly formed partnership, Winters Partners Ltd.

Roy E. surrendered 19,600 shares SGC stock for $59,066 value of Class B stock in WPL.

Roy Received:  $100,000 debenture issued by WPL.

116 shares of class B non-voting preferred stock of WHC value of $116,013,

750 shares on non-voting preferred of WHC. $15,000 value

3. November 1985 (Estate Planning #3)

• Winters Partners Limited and Winter Holding Company were formed as part of an extensive Estate Planning strategy orchestrated by Bob Randolph one of the managing partners of Peat Marwick Co. in Orlando.
• Winters Partners Limited was formed in November 1985 with 81,450 shares of SGC stock. Minutes provided for Payment of $60,000 cash and $1,145,460 to be paid on or before January 2, 1986.
• Winter Children Trust and the SGC office building at 505 Lake Howard ended up in the WPL
• 400,000 shares of SGC stock issued to Winters Holding Company 

• Nov 15, 1985, Proposed merger of Kensington Mortgage merge with Southern Guaranty was denied by Fleet Mtg. Co. 
• Tammy Ellis was offered a position with Paul Zink in Jacksonville, so she resigned

December 1985

• Dec 20 – Southern Guaranty Mortgage, Inc. (SGM) was considered as a new business. Decide not to do so.
• SGC redeemed stock from WPL for $66,000 plus a note for $1.25 million. In January the note was paid by transferring the SGC building to WPL. Note payments were $750,000 on January 2, 1986; $250,000 on January 23, and $250,000 on Feb 23, 1986. I think that WPL now owned all the stock of SGC.
• Credited to: DEW $500,000; MNW $500,000; Roy Trust $100,000: Don Trust $100,000: Teri Trust $100,000; Byron Trust $10,000; Brent Trust $6,000 

• Estate planning included redemption of class B stock.

December 31, 1985, Stock redemption:

Redeemed 1316 shares of Winters Holding Company stock – Byron 10; Brent 6; REW 100; TJW 100; DNW 100.

 MNW 500; DEW 500.   1316 shares @ $1000 per share. = $1,316,000

$ 60,000 Dec 30^th, 1985

$ 750.000 Jan 2, 1986

$ 250,000 Jan 23, 1986

$ 250,000 Feb 23, 1986

• Winters Holding Co. issued Debenture #1 to Daniel E. Winters for $500.000 @ 12%.
• Winters Holding Co. issued Debenture #2 to Mary Nell Winters for $500.000 @ 12%.
• Winters Holding Co. issued Debenture #3 to CHC for as trustee for Byron E. Winters for $100.000 @ 12%.
• Winters Holding Co. issued Debenture #4 to CHC for as trustee for Donald N. Winters for $100.000 @ 12%.
• Winters Holding Co. issued Debenture #5 to CHC for as trustee for Teresa J. Winters for $100.000 @ 12%.
• Winters Holding Co. issued Debenture #6 to CHC for as trustee for Roy E. Winters for $100.000 @ 12%.
• Winters Holding Co. issued Debenture #7 to CHC for as trustee for Brent L. Winters for $100.000 @ 12%.

(Comments in letter from Simon dated January 2, 1986) Teri is working in Jacksonville Sat. Sun, Mon. and Tues. Working in Winter Haven on Wed Thurs and Fri.  Ed divorced in September and was living in Teri’s Casa Del Sol condo on 21^st Street NW.

Don & Emily were living on 15^th St. SW.) 

SGC reported Mortgage Servicing as of year-end for 1984 – 17,327 loans: Principal balance of $290,892,566 special trustee bank account $4,754,447.

 Dec 31, 1985 – 18,095 loans with Principal balances of $253,118,950

(See note #8 of SGC financial statement.) Special trustee bank account $1,987,950.

Jan 2, 1986 – WHC wrote check to Dan Winters for $25,076; also $25,076 to Mary N. Winters.  SGC wrote check to Winters Holding Corp in amount of $66,000 Distribution on Stock.

WHC wrote check to Mary N. Winters for $284,954. Same amount to Dan Winters on Jan 10, 1986 – Stock distr.

WHC wrote check to Roy E. $56,991; Teresa J.; Donald N. $56,991:  Byron 5,599; Brent $3,420.

4 story building was transferred to Winters Partners, Ltd in discharge of the obligation to pay $1,145,460 stock redemption common stock.

Jan 3 – SGC paid Winter Holding Corp or WPL $550,000.

 Jan 9 – SGC paid Winter’s Holding Corp. $200,000.

• Jan 6, 1986 made a $100,000 gift to Ed, Don, and Teri each.
• SGC borrowed $788,000 from bank to deposit into GNMA P&I account. This is first time in the company’s history and was related to increased losses due to repossession related cost.
• $500 to Simon plus $200 Jun 87 plus $300 Oct 87 plus $300 on Nov 15^th ‘87

Jan 22 – Southern Insurance Services wrote check to Mary Nell for $50,000 distribution to shareholder.

Feb 4, 1986 – KMF paid officer’s salaries (Mgt Fees) to DEW & MNW July ’85 to July ’86 = total of $190.000

Feb 7 – Winters Holding Company redeemed Stock from DEW $94,985 and MNW $94,985. 

• Officers of SGC were Dan, Mary Nell, and Jack
• Lynn Stone of Church of God School of Theology acknowledged receiving from me another $5,000 for the Revolving Loan Fund.
• Ray H. Hughes as President of Lee College acknowledged receiving from me another $5,000 for the Revolving Loan Fund.

Feb 25, 1986 – DEW transferred 100% of the stock I own in Kensington Mortgage Co, Inc. a Fla. Corporation to Winters Holding Corp in exchange for one share in Winters Holding Corporation.

 April 3, 1986 – WHC wrote Teri Winters check for $14,991.

• Marty Heck began negotiation with SGC toward a purchase. He represented a large Savings and Loan Associate in New England who wanted to enter the Mobile Home Lending business. Home Owners Funding Association. He hesitated because of the pending results of the Class Action lawsuit.

May 13, 1986, Dan wrote message to file.  Joe Sharit, Charles Chilton, and Bob Randolph were consulted many times concerning possible risk and exposures of SGC. Dan wanted to remove some of the money from exposure to a safer position.

May 21

• FHA issued Southern Guaranty Mortgage Corp (a new company) a new Title One lender contract. Contract #50333. We could now originate loans on the SGC repos and sell this new loan to another GNMA approved lender until we could obtain a new GNMA contract approval. If SGC failed, SGMC would be allowed to continue the mortgage loan business.

June 7, 1986 – SGC Apr year to date financial statements reported. Loss on repo’s almost doubling each month.

June 1986, I went to local doctor for a physical. Under a stress test the doctor observed symptoms of coronary heart disease. My mother had the disease and died suddenly at the age of 50. I was now 53 years of age and had the same disease. During any previous visits to the doctors, they gave me reports of good health and a life expectancy of age 100. Dr. Hammer sent me to Florida Hospital in Orlando Florida to see Dr. Charles Curry for the first angiogram on my heart on Friday the 27^th. They recommended I stay in the hospital until they could do an Angioplasty on Monday the 30^th. I am unable to describe my feelings and emotions. Against the doctor’s advice I did return home as I felt it very important to inform my three children plus Momma and Daddy King of the situation. On Monday I entered the Florida Hospital, and they did the Angioplasty as scheduled.

Sept 24, 1986 – I returned to Orlando Heart Institute for Open heart surgery with a 5-artery open heart bypass. During the 10 hours of surgery, the family had to evacuate the hospital for a fire drill a couple of times. Carl Richardson and several other friends stayed at the hospital with the family. Recovery went well although it took a full year to return to normalcy. Dr. Curry told me, Mary Nell, that he had only bypassed the blockages and that I had a problem. He said I had heart disease and there is no known cure for it. Blockages would reoccur, and I would require future surgery if I lived. I spent a lot of time home resting and recuperating from the surgery. I read the Bible and focused my attention more on what God would want me to be doing at this phase of my life. 

November 1986 – Teri resigns from SGC, however, continued to work part-time as she commuted from Jacksonville. She worked for Pastor Paul Zink.

Feb 6, 1987, Ruth Ellen Taylor the daughter of Jack Berry fruit company expressed Interest In buying the SGC building. “will run It by her father and see what he says”

July 7, 1986, Ed returned to full time work at Southern. Jan thru June his earnings were $7,384.

Our auditors, Peat Marwick, were one of the eight largest CPA firms in America and had audited our books and prepare the financial statements and income tax returns for several years. During the audit in the spring of 1986 the preliminary statement provided by these same CPAs to Dan Winters as president reflected an enormous profit for the year of 1985. The minimum net worth requirement for a mobile home lender was $500,000. SGC net worth would again far exceed the GNMA requirements. GNMA regulations required that as a GNMA issuer that we would provide them with an annual financial statement audited by a CPA firm.

All appeared wonderful; however, I had some concern as to the adequacy of the reserve for losses on the repossession that were in inventory. The accountant’s estimate was based upon prior experiences of the company. I perceived or felt the losses would be greater in the future because the number of repossessions in the industry was increasing and the inventory was getting larger each month. As president, I declined to sign off agreeing with the profits as stated for the prior year of operation. I also request the CPA’s further review the reserve for future losses considering the increased number of repossessed mobile homes in the inventory of the mobile home industry.

Looking back, I may have “shot myself in the foot”; however, in good conscience I could not approve the accounting statement that was contrary to my judgment. Upon my request the CPA’s and our inhouse SGC accountant begin to give further study of the reserve for potential losses. The IRS agent had the third opinion as to the loss reserve for repossessions. IRS wanted lower reserves so SGC would report a larger profit and pay a larger amount of income taxes. No one could come up with a number that they felt sure of. This was uncharted waters to have so many repos in the marketplace nationwide. SGC incurred additional losses every day a repo was unsold. 

I contacted GNMA and advised them of our difficulty of timely providing them an audited statement. They gave us a few more weeks to deliver the certified statement. I could not bring myself to sign a certification with the uncertainty in my heart. The CPA did not issue a certified financial because they could not express an opinion.

However, GMNA said the regulations would have to be complied with which required SGC to provide them a certified financial statement disclosing a minimum net worth of $500,000 otherwise we would be declared in default.

On July 9^{th, 1986,} My attorney Charles Chilton and I flew to Washington DC and accompanied our legal counsel to the GMNA office and meet with some of the top official of the Department HUD and discussed our situation of loss reserves and proper disclosure on our financial statement.

GNMA said we were one of their best issuers and they understood that we did not cause the situation. They said SGC was like a cork upon the high sea, and we would just be subject to what happened in the mobile home industry.

GNMA declared SGC in default. GNMA became the servicer.

During this same meeting they simultaneously appointed SGC as their sub-servicer. Under this new agreement they began paying SGC a monthly service fee with GNMA assuming all the expenses related to future losses on the repos. This was a miracle!

During the discussions that followed that same day GNMA officials, and their legal counsel were pleasantly surprised when I explained to them how as the new sub-servicer, I could make a large amount of income for GNMA by my loan modification program. As the primary service they consented to sharing the future modification gains with SGC as the sub-servicer.

Attorney’s Harvey Weiner and Charles Chilton represented me at meeting.  Harvey was an outstanding Jewish lawyer who was well respected for his legal opinions with offices in DC. Harvey had worked for many years for FHA and was also legal counsel for the NMHFA from its inception. Harvey had previous expressed some concern about so many GNMA securities being redeemed early as a result of the modification programs being offered by SGC and other issuers. He felt there was some risk of a lawsuit by one or more of the large investors of GNMA securities.

After the meeting Weiner expressed his amazement at what happened during that meeting. He could hardly believe that GNMA assumed the losses and agreed to pay me to service the loans. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly GNMA had placed themselves in the position of having to defend any possible legal action by a disgruntled GNMA investor who securities were redeemed early because of a refinance or modification. He had never seen the government do such a transaction. He asks how I managed to pull that off. I explained to him that I was not that smart; that I always did my best and trusted God to give me the wisdom when I needed it. This was an example of how God takes care of us when we do our best. I felt like God had done a miracle for me like he did for Moses when he was rescued from the bull rushes. I was very thankful to God for having given me the blessing with GNMA that day. Most people expected GNMA to take the portfolio and send me home without anything except a default. I felt the Lord was helping me during a very difficult business situation.

During a prior visit Harvey and his partners appeared to be amazed at how I ever become an approved GNMA issuer, FHA lender and VA lender without the services and assistance of their law firm or a similar law firm. All other lenders they knew of had paid a large amount for legal assistance; and now I was telling them I had obtained these approvals without their assistance. I had simply read the literature and made my application directly to the various governmental agencies.

 As that meeting ended, I returned to Winter Haven to operate Kensington Mortgage and Finance as a full-service issuer for GNMA; plus, as a sub servicer of GNMA I now had primary responsibility for the Southern Guaranty portfolio.

 July 9, 1986, SGC was sub-servicing 1500 loan in the repossessed status. Average loss per repo loan was $6,000.  Now that SGC was only a sub servicer it would be the primary servicer (GNMA) responsibility to fund and flow the cash to keep all security holder paid timely.

July 18^{th, 1986, …} I had some slight heart pains, so the doctors performed the second angioplasty surgery on his heart at the Orlando Heart Institute.

July 26, 1986 – Agreement to sale Kensington Mortgage to Fred Wiesenberger and Keith O’Gorman for the sum of two million Dollars in Cash.

 July 30, 1986 – WHC wrote check to Daniel E. Winters in amount of $94,985. –  Stock sale distribution.

August 1986 – Sold 100% of the Kensington Mortgage stock to Fred Wiesenberger, Manon, Inc. in San Antonio Texas.

Several years previously, Charles Chilton and I had meet Keith O’Gorman, an attorney in San Antonio. Keith was very active in the mobile home industry in Texas and had served as legal counsel for the Texas Mobile Home Dealers Association. Fred Wiesenberger contacted Keith as to how he could become a mortgage banking firm. Keith phoned Chilton and Charlie immediately phoned me while I was at our beach apartment recuperating. Over the phone within a few days, we put together an agreement to sell Kensington to them, so they could be in the business.

Wiesenberger came to Winter Haven and leased them some office space from us.  Under our agreement, some good SGC employees were also transferred to them. They operated for about a year at 500 Lake Howard and then moved the Kensington files and operation to Texas.

This was a good value for Wiesenberger because Kensington now had more than five million dollars in the bank account which had been generated primarily from the loan modification program during the prior 12 months. I desired to withdraw some of these profits to add to my personal estate; however, my legal counsel was not comfortable with me withdrawing the money beyond a reasonable salary. Any excess compensation might create a risk of personal liability to me should KMF incur any losses. I wanted to remove some wealth from business risk; therefore, the sale was recommended by my attorneys and CPA as my best choice under the circumstances. We were careful to require the buyer to use their personal funds for the purchase and not to withdraw any of the Kensington business funds to pay me the two million purchase price. Perhaps this was another God thing for me. I was tired of operating big business and my children were not really interested in making the business go.

August 6 – Dan  Winters signed signature cards to open two checking accounts in name of KMF at the National Bank of Commerce in San Antonio, TX.

August 7 – Dan and Mary Nell received a Two Million Dollars cashier check from Wiesenberger personnel and placed it in a Certificate of Deposit with NBC Bank in San Antonio, Texas

Fred Weisenberger as president of Kensington Mortgage and Finance Corp hired Dan Winters as a consultant for 36 months for a total of $270,000.

August 8 – August 8^th $2,800,000 was transferred to Texas Bank by KMF.

Winters Holding Corp agrees to continue Data Processing services to Kensington Mortgage and Finance for a monthly fee of 50 cents per account per month.

Dan transferred this to $400K to A.G. Edwards, 300K to NCNB Winter Haven, and 300K First Sterling Bank in Winter Haven.

Winters Partners Limited agreed to lease to KMF 45% of the office space for $9,706.66 monthly.

We did overlook the fact that I did not resign as the only director of Kensington Mortgage and Finance on the records of the state of Florida.

With the uncertainty of my health, I focus a lot of attention on getting my estate in order. I did not want a lot of exposure and business risk for Mary Nell to have to deal with considering my impending death.

Mary Nell had so many things to deal with. Her dad was in poor health as a result of a stroke. Her parents depended upon her to pay their bills and assist them in many ways. Ed was not working, and was divorced, and that caused her to be very concerned about Byron and Brent’s future as they were only 4 and 7 years of age at this time.  She had taken care of all the accounting for all the trust accounts for several years, including the income tax returns. The children all leaned upon her for their monthly checks, paperwork, car tags etc. Donnie was not working and seldom came around. Teri wanted to sing, preach and travel being the beautiful, talented young lady she was. Mary Nell fully shared in any of my activities including all the business problems and management decisions. I kept nothing from her, we shared everything. Considering my short life expectancy, I was very determined to eliminate any business I could, so she would have less to worry about in the event of my death.

On September 19^{th, 1986} – Signed the sub-servicer agreement signed by GNMA with SGC to service the GNMA portfolio that went into default on July 9^th.

Sale of Mortgage Financing businesses.

We Sold Winters Holding Company, Southern Guaranty Corp and Gulfcoast Finance
on September 30, 1987 WHC had $700,000 cash in bank plus other assets for a total value of $1,300,000 less any contingent income tax liability. I was tired and wanted to cease business. No family members were available to continue the business. I sold some of the businesses for far less than their book value.

I sold Winters Holding Company and Southern Guaranty Corporation stock to Joseph F. Holmes at Southwest Equities for $250,000 cash. $1,300,000 value for $$250,000.

Gulfcoast Finance, Inc. was included in the sale. This concluded our ownership with the Mobile Home Mortgage Banking firms, removing me from any contingent liabilities from these businesses.

Winters Holding Company, Southern Guaranty Corp and Gulfcoast Finance and Southwest Equities in Texas became part of Capital Resources Mortgage Co in Temple Texas and Carl A. Kinne was the president.

Joseph F. Holmes became the owner of Southwest Financial Equities.

Pubic record of end of Southern Guaranty Corporation:

Recent filings for SOUTHERN GUARANTY CORPORATION

30 Sep 1992

FORFEITURE

23 Mar 1992

RETMAIL

10 Mar 1992

RESIGNATION OF REGISTERED AGENT

19 May 1983

LEGACY FILING

In February 1987 the class action lawsuit with SGC that had begun in October 1984 was still in the courts. After 30 months I was getting weary.

March 1987 Teri was living in Jacksonville developing a traveling ministry of singing and preaching for the Lord. She and Joyce Miller took a missionary trip to the Philippines before June. They went to Escalante and visited with Pastor Pol Cobus. I was very proud of Teri as she traveled and ministered for the Lord; however, I had very mixed emotions as I suffered from the feeling that none of my children desired to help me preserve the business I had built for the family. The mortgage business was earning such large cash profits; however, it was creating so much stress on me and I realized my doctors warned me to avoid stress.  Ed Winters began working at Meritor Federal Savings and Loan in Winter Haven for a few weeks as a loan officer; however, his lifestyle prevented him from being able to perform and carry out his job responsibilities. He lost the job. Donnie worked with Charlie Day, and they did some painting at SGC building. Charlie said he was a good worker; however, his health failed him, and he died leaving Donnie unemployed.

I was deeply troubled; I prayed a lot and read the Bible searching for the will of God. I felt I could not bear to see the four-story office building become vacant and the approximately 100 employees lose their jobs.  With no mobile home loans to service, I did not need the 500 Lake Howard Drive building. Bill Watson Real Estate began to try to find a buyer for the building. They printed a beautiful colored brochure and made a serious effort to sell the building without much success. I felt the love of God and His presence was with me as I would sit up late and study His word. I prayed and talked to the Lord. I reminded him that I had always confessed Him to others; I told God I did not know what the people would say if they were to witness that beautiful lakefront building vacated and sit empty for a long period of time. I told Him I was concerned as to how it would appear to others if He allowed the business to totally fail and the building become vacant.

State Farm Insurance had corporate offices between Winter Haven and Lake Alfred. They had previously announced that they were intending to build new corporate offices on Cypress Gardens Boulevard. They began to negotiate with me to lease 500 Lake Howard buildings for five years until they could complete their construction.

Once again God was faithful, and He came thru just in time. HOFCA moved the files out of the building and State Farm Insurance Company moved into the building. PRAISE THE LORD! Once again, my God had come to my rescue in my time of desperation.

On July 2^nd, 1987, State Farm Insurance signed a three-year lease beginning in August. 3 yrs. @ $16,073.50 per month = $578,646. Plus, the option to renew for two additional one-year periods.

Jack and others wanted us to delay vacating for a couple of months to give us more time to sell the office equipment. He wanted to have a big garage sale and get some money for all that equipment. I felt any proceeds from the sale of the equipment would not yield as much as $16,073 rent loss for one month plus I would have the cost of Jack and others conducting the sale.

So, we gave a truckload of desks and other office equipment to Carpenters Home Church, to avoid missing $16,073 August rent on the 500 Lake Howard building to State Farm. Some of the furniture was solid oak, beautifully furnished. Large conference table with 12-armed chairs. About 100 other desks, chairs, and other office equipment. Carpenters Home Church could put all the equipment to use in the Kingdom work. 

Southern Guaranty and Southern Insurance Services Inc. (SISI) rented office space and moved to 5^th Street SW before the end of July 1987.

April 89 State Farm Insurance Company completed a land deal so they could begin building on Cypress Gardens Blvd. They extended the period of my lease beyond the July 31, 1991, expiration date.

July 20, 1987 – IRS audit of SGC for years of ’82, ’83, and 12/31, 1984 extended to Dec 31, 1988; had extended prior years previously on Sept. 3, 1986. 

June 22. 1988 –   Teri and Tami were in South Africa with Carl Richardson Ministries

Southern Guaranty Corp was dissolved by the State of Florida as inactive on October 13, 1989.  

In September 1988, Dan was appointed by Pastor Karl Strader to serve on Finance Committee at Carpenters Home Church. I was only invited to a couple of meetings. I never really understood what this was all about.

Aunt Evelyn Hale resigned after working for many years with us taking care of Sun Acres Water Accounts of Dan Winters Corporation and Southern Guaranty Corp. Evelyn was also the first office worker at the mobile home factory in year of about 1969.

Aunt Evelyn and my Uncle Charlie were special people to me. They had employed me when I was a teenager to work in their grocery store in Aracoma, WV.

Every mobile home and every house that was financed by a bank or SGC required the owner to have a physical damage insurance policy. Each time I made a sale I telephoned Pathway Insurance and ordered an insurance policy for the new homeowner. Later I made the decision to form my own company to act as an insurance agency and provide insurance coverage for the new homeowners and with my company making a commission on the insurance premium. The company was known as Southern Insurance Services Inc. (SISI).

(SISI) was a subchapter “S” small business corporation.

This company was also used to write fire and extended coverage insurance on mobile
Homes financed by Southern Guaranty Corporation. SGC collected and escrowed premiums monthly as the principal and interest were collected. As we increased the number of mobile homes financed, we also increased to the opportunity to renew or rewrite the annual policy and earn a commission on the premium. In December1985 SGC reported servicing 18,095 loans plus Kensington was servicing 18,067 loans.

As this business became very profitable with a low overhead cost, I transferred all my shares to my wife Mary Nell. According to IRS regulations this transaction would be a non-taxable event, however year later during an audit the IRS assessed me $73,000 taxes.

Husband and wife who file a joint income tax return can transfer any assets between the spouses without creating a tax liability; I objected however, IRS never conceded.

Jan 22, 1986 – Southern Insurance Services wrote a check to Mary Nell for $50,000 distribution to the shareholder.

February 1987 Home Owners Funding assumed the servicing of the loans and they began to pirate or capture the writing of the renewal insurance at the time of annual renewal which was decreasing SISI number of customers. As I was phasing out of business activities, I did not make much effort in preventing this.

Before the end of July 1987, Southern Guaranty and Southern Insurance Services Inc. (SISI) rented office space and moved to 5th Street SW.

On June 16, 1989, I moved Southern Insurance Services Inc. to Jim Greens offices on 6th Street NW; and moved all DWC records from 5th Street to 1319 Mirror Terrace.

I first met Jim Green about 1957 when he first moved to Winter Haven from Ohio. I was the office manager at Tip Top TV and Jim was hired as a salesperson. After a few weeks and only selling one radio Jim moved on. About 25 years later he was in the Insurance business and began to write coverage on my personal home and businesses. We became business friends, and he was a good Baptist brother. He volunteered to assist me in closing out SISI.

I moved SISI to his office on 6th Street on June 16, 1989, and we began to negotiate a sale of SISI to him. SISI only had four employees which included Deborah and Van Means. Byron was about 11 and Brent about 8 so it was important to me that their mother Deborah had a job and income to support my grandsons.

September 1989 – I sold Jim Green the SISI assets for about $70,000. I arranged for him to pay an extra $1,000 a month for 70 months to help support my grandsons Byron and Brent.

With the sale of SISI, I was now out of business except for Dan Winters Corporation.

As a separate item, Foremost Insurance Company denied payment on a large sum of money due Southern Insurance Co. Dan and Van Means flew to St. Louis to negotiate the insurance commission due Southern Insurance Services from Foremost and HOFCA. Van commented as to how proud she was that Dan appeared much more professional and had a better comprehension of the situation than any of the other executives present. The meeting resulted in a satisfactory conclusion, and we received our money.

33 years later in Sept – Oct 2022 Jim Green and his wife Patsy came to visit me in Cleveland, and we enjoyed a delightful meal at the Longhorn restaurant. We talked about some of these past events and our friendship. We reminisced of how Jim had visited me about 5 years previously and felt impressed to donate money to Jesus Saves Network ministry to provide caps and gowns for the graduation class of 68 student at our Bible School in Nepal. He said that within a few days after that he received a check for more than double that amount unexpectedly thru the mail from Formost Insurance Company. The Lord is good and repaid Jim for his gift. Our Bible School continues to use the caps and gowns.

Praise the Lord!

Public Record of end of Southern Insurance Services Inc: 

Detail by Entity Name

In September 1992 we finally worked out a settlement with IRS an audit that began in Oct 1984.

The IRS agents had difficulty believing I could have purchased KMF for one dollar and then selling KMK for two million dollars. Although I paid one million income taxes on the sale, he questioned the transaction several times during the audit.

He also questioned why I would give so much to charity. After seven years of audits, we finally agreed and settled for a total amount of $460,427.

I was very weary from the uncertainty.  My CPA and attorneys felt we had good chance of winning if we took our arguments to court.  We might win and eliminate the tax altogether, however, there are great risks in a tax court. I wanted to settle and get closure on this issue.

IRS original claim was for $1,300,000 plus a $640 penalty and interest. Final settlement was $460,427. Legal and accounting fees were substantial. Considering my health, I decided to settle the claim and avoid additional legal fees. 

The mobile home factory was located on the Rifle Range Road in Wahneta about 5 miles from town. The Dan Winters Mobile Home Display Center was located at 3^rd Street and Avenue D SW, which was 5 blocks from the Dan Winters office on the corner of 2^nd Street and Bates Avenue SW.  As president, it kept me busy shuffling between these three locations.

Ron Mixon, Charlie Hale, Tom Gilpin, and I often had different opinions as to the best method to promote sales and achieve sales volume. Daddy King was responsible for deliveries from both the factory and the retail sales lot. I felt the stress from so much business involving so many family members and so many employees. Ed Bircheat began to comment “If you’re not kin you are not in.” 

One day Dan Winters Mobile Home Displace Center lost our lease on the sales lot; therefore, I considered this a good opportunity to close our retail business and provide business opportunities for some of the relatives. I provide temporary financing for Tom Gilpin to open his lot in Haines City; Charlie Hale to open his lot “Upside down Charlie” in Lake Alfred. Jerry Ogburn our third salesperson opened his lot on Highway 92 in Auburndale. Tom Hagan opened his lot in Bartow. I provided some temporary financing for all four of these new dealers until they got their bank lines established

Charlie Hale became licensed to sell his own insurance. He and Evelyn began to build a new home on Lake Pansy, and I was disappointed that I was unaware of his planning and not being invited to bid on the construction. 

Ron Mixon as sales manager for Cypress Homes factory spent lots of time assisting Tom Gilpin with promoting and selling homes at his retail lot. Tom became licensed to sell his own insurance and arranged for the local banks to provide most of his needed financing. I often would have preferred that Ron spend more of this time soliciting the much-needed sales for Cypress Homes. Cypress Homes barely survived.

Life was very busy. Mary Nell and I were (1) parents of 3 children (2) she was music director and worship leader (3) I was clerk of the church and we were handling all of the finances and bank deposits  (4) we were directors of children’s church (5) developing and selling land (6) building and selling houses as Dan Winters Corp; Homes of Florida Inc.; and Orange Homes Inc. (7) writing insurance (8) operating two water systems (9) manufacturing mobile homes (10) operating a mobile home retail sales lot (11) creating a new mobile home mortgage banking company to provide financing for other dealers statewide (12) partner with Ted King in Winter Haven Realty. Mary Nell was responsible for employee records, payroll, taxes, licenses etc. for all operations except the factory.

Without a mobile home sales lot, I could now spend more time with the mobile home mortgage banking business I was beginning.

My associate George Thomson told me about 67 acres that were available on Lake McLeod near the town of Eagle Lake. About 60 acres of the land was a producing orange grove with 7 acres of low land near the water of Lake McLeod. The survey for Dan Winters Corporation was dated June 18, 1974.

November 13, 1974, Henry M. and Carson F. Sinclair sold me the 67 acres located on Spruce Road and Lake McLeod for $203,000. I made the purchase in the name of Business Management Consultants with Exchange Bank of Winter Haven financing $144,000 of the purchase price.

I intended to develop it for homes or a mobile home park. I considered several possibilities and in 1978 I came very close to pushing the citrus trees and developing a planned housing subdivision, Century Village. My construction crew could not locate the landmarks, so we had to order a new survey. The interest rates increased rapidly, and I reconsidered. (Perhaps a God thing that prevented me from entering the market at the wrong time). I continued to sell the oranges and grapefruit to citrus dealers such as Chuck Young. 

For 30 years I was a grove owner producing citrus fruit until Oct 2004 when I sold the property to Mur, Inc. for $1.1 million less the $100,000 commission paid to Mike Nolan, Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT, Arvida Corp. as a real estate commission.

Mur, Inc. later 2004 assigned the property to Eagle Lake Reserve, LLC

DWC deposited at Smith Barney $212,000 on August 30, 2004, plus $71,332 in monthly installments during the years 2003 and 2004. This fit good with my retirement plan now that I was 71 year of age.