sss When we moved to this home near Pecks Mill, I began attending the Mill Creek grade school to continue my first-grade education.  There were about 35 students attending this one room white school house. Grades one thru six all met in one classroom.  Each row of seats was for students of a different grade.  The wooden seat was part of the desk of the student behind you.  Each desk had an ink well and a grooved place for a pencil.  Each student’s books were placed inside their desk directly above their knees.

One day I was writing on the chalkboard and my teacher came up behind me and slapped me on my backside with her hand.  I had not heard her when she evidently told me to take my chair.  This one lick spanking must have impressed me as I can still remember it 84 years later. That is the only time I can recall punishment in school.

When the older classmates disobeyed, the teacher would order another student to go into the nearby hillside and get a long limber tree branch about 4 feet long.  She would take the disobedient one outside behind the schoolhouse and apply the switch several times.  I never got one of these whippings.

The drinking water was carried in an open 2-gallon bucket and placed on a shelf in the back of the classroom.  Each student was responsible to bring a jar or glass from home, which was for their own use, unless they wanted to drink directly from the one common metal drinking dipper that was placed into the bucket of water.  I took a glass jar and placed on the shelf for my personal drinking.   At the end of the school year, I took the glass home.  The water was carried from a nearby mountain spring by one of the larger students. Later the school board sent our school a three-gallon water tank with a faucet on it.  Then we could run the water directly into our glass without dipping our glass into the open bucket.  We were proud of the new drinking tank.

Rest rooms were built of wood on the edge of the schoolyard next to the creek bank.  The girl’s toilet was constructed about 10 feet from the boy’s toilet.  Old newspapers or catalogs were used for toilet paper.

Recess was a very active time.  Games included batting some kind of a soft ball, throwing a ball over the top of the school and saying, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send __(name)__ over.”

During recess while sitting out on the playground the older boys would tease me and the other first graders.  One day they saw my underwear was the type little girls wore, so they really teased me that day.  They told me I could not use the boys’ toilet, that I would have to use the girl’s toilet.  I beat them with my little hard fist, but it didn’t hurt them. In those days, most of my clothing was handed down or previously owned.  Most of it had been thoroughly worn by my older brothers before I grew into it. Patches were common on our pants and shirts. Many of my clothes had previously been worn by my 2 older brothers so they were faded with patches over the holes and torn spots were normal for me.

The bridge provided road way for those traveling from Logan to Huntington on state highway 10. It crossed both the river and the railroad.

We would walk about one mile to school each day.  Tom my oldest brother was 9 years old and in the 5th grade.  My brother, Donald was 7 years old and in the 3rd grade.  We had to walk on the narrow bridge that crossed the Guyandotte River at Mill Creek.  When large trucks would meet another vehicle, we would have to climb on the curb and hold close and tight to the side of the bridge as the two vehicles passed.  It was always scary, as the cars would often miss you by only a few inches.  As I looked down, I could see the river flowing swiftly about fifty feet below.  I remember more than once Donald would climb and walk on top of the four feet high metal bridge guardrail.  I was too afraid to do so and would beg him to get down before he fell into the river below.  Needless to say, he never fell. Surely there was a guardian angel protecting us because of the prayers of our mother. The railroad engines were all steam driven and produced a lot of smoke from the coal fire boilers. If we were walking the bridge we could look down as the train traveled underneath us. As the engine passed underneath us the smoke and soot will cover us.

On a few occasions, we waded across the river on our way home from school.  Where the rocky shoals began, the water was rather shallow in the summertime.  The water was up to my waist and the rocks were slippery, so we had to be very careful where I placed my foot.  I never did like crossing the water this way.  The water was swift against my small body, and it was hard to stand against the currents.  Usually, one of my older brothers would hold my hand in the more difficult spots.  In 2008 my cousin David Robinson reminded me that one summer he was visiting us, and we all waded the river and he was scared for his life.

There was not much area on the shoulder of the highway No. 10 for walking, but somehow, we never got hit by any of the cars on the busily traveled roadway. Our dad drove the only car to work at Peach Creek and my mother did not drive and our only way to school was to walk. Several months later to public school system extended the school bus system and we were provided transportation to a different school in Henlawson.

As I reminisce, I know my mother must have worried every day about the safety of her three sons walking to and from school, thru the rain and cold. I’m not sure she ever knew all the things we did.

On cold winter days, the water dripping from the rock cliffs would freeze into long icicles. On the way home from school, we would break the icicles and use them as swords to have friendly sword fights with one another. The icicles would freeze until they touched the ground. Some of the would become 8 or 10 feet long which made them too large and heavy for us small boys to handle.

My Uncle Herbert and Aunt Kathryn built a house and moved next door to us.  Now there were three Winters’ families in a row on the hillside.  The houses were about 150 feet apart.  Herbert and his family lived in the center house, with my grandparents living next door to them.  Dad and Uncle Herbert wanted a well, so they began digging by with a pick and shovel. When the hole was about 10 feet deep, they found a hard rock before they could find water.  The three families carried drinking water from grandpa Winters’ well.

My cousin Dickey attended school with me at Mill Creek; he was also in the first grade.  He was three months older than me.  I recall us standing around the old potbelly coal stove eating lunch on a cold day.  Dickey had boiled eggs to eat this one-day. It seemed to me the other children liked his friendly attitude much more than me with my quiet attitude.  My lunch was usually wrapped in a piece of newspaper and tied with some thread or string.  Dickey somehow usually had his lunch in a brown paper bag.

My cousin Zetta did not attend Mill Creek School as she lived in the Justice Addition school district. However, she recalls attending our school for one Halloween event. My mother painted our little faces with black coal soot, so we looked like little Pygmies. Us cousins were very close and enjoyed being together.

My childhood memories of family were delightful. My mother showered her children with love and made each one of them feel special. The family was very involved in church and serving God. The children all joined their parents in working in the garden, maintaining the yard, and doing family chores. Work was a family activity.

Working as a child and teen ager, before my first business.

Before I was 19 years of age my work for money at several endeavors:

Age 7 or 8 I sold Ferry Garden seed to friends and neighbors. My first job away from the house was selling garden/flower seeds from door to door.  Of course, some of the houses were ½ mile apart so it took some walking. The seeds were from Morris Seed Company or Ferry Seed Company, and they would send us a prize if we sold the required amount. One year we choose the football as our prize. I remember my parents were gone to town and my brother Donald told me he knew where there was a football. I assume my mother had hid it for safe keeping until Christmas. Donald and I passed the ball back and forth only about three times when it hit into one of the thorny Locus trees and lost all its air. We placed the deflated football back into its hiding place inside a crock churn in mother’s closet and did not disclose the situation to our parents.

Delivered Logan Banner to about 10 customers in Pecks Mill

Age 12 and attending the 8^th grade in school I was the paper boy on Crooked Creek to about 70 homes.

At age of 14, I would plow gardens for neighbors and earn money. I purchase and paid for my own new bicycle from Montgomery Ward. After school I had chores or areas of responsibility also such as hoeing in the garden etc. At age 14, I would plow gardens for neighbors and earn money.

Age 15 -16 Worked in grocery store and plant store, cleaning, stocking shelves, customer services.

Purchased my own motor bicycle. Drove truck to pick us scrap food and feed for farm animals.

Opened my own business providing mine timers to coal mines. Cut the trees and  cut to length per order. Only made one sell.

Worked for dry cleaner picking up and delivering dry cleaning. Delivered groceries.

Door to sales of Electrolux vacuum cleaner for a few months before

January 14, 1952, age 18 moved to Florida.

Race and Race beginning on Feb 15, 1952, at the age of 19, working in the office. After 5 months I was promoted as “timekeeper” and “shipping clerk” in the plant. I volunteered to work on Saturday carrying heavy irrigation pipe 20, 30, 40 feet unloading railroad freight cars.

May 25, 1953, at the age of 20 I joined the U.S. Army for 24 months.

1955 – 1960 Tip Top TV and Appliances as bookkeeper and sales person.

1960 – Age 27, Began building house part time as a second job. My first real business.

1962 – Worked from home building homes for Dan Winters Corp. Selling land in Hillside Acres.

Another job I had was selling and delivering the Logan Banner newspaper.  My dad delivered the bundles of newspapers to the carrier at the various communities between Logan and Big Creek. He arranged for me to be the carrier for Pecks Mill area. The route began at the Pecks Grocery store, up the hill to the house by the cemetery, down across the highway and cross the railroad to Peck home, north up the railroad and cross the train trestle where Mill Creek flows into the Guyandotte river. Up the hill to the three houses then around the side of the mountain to the Mill Creek school house and the back to the grocery store. I recall, how I had a crush on the girl whose home was located on the ground next to the schoolhouse. As I walked by there, I would loudly sing a love song “Wahneta, my love for you will never, never die”.

 I had between 8 and 15 customers.  The scary part was walking the railroad when the big coal train would come by. They would pull as many as 50 to 100 cars of coal, and it would take them several minutes to clear the tracts so I could cross to the other side. I had to cross twice plus I had to walk the trestle. On a few occasions, I got tired of waiting and would walk the trestle next to the moving cars. The trestle was shaking, and I could look between the cross ties and see the flowing creek about 75 feet below. Yes, I was scared but I needed to be back to the store by the time my dad returned from Big Creek to carry me back home.

At the grocery store many coal miners stopped as customers on their way to or from work. If I could sell them a paper, I could keep the 5 cents. I would always ask; “Hey mister, want to buy a Banner today?” They liked for me to hold the paper up for them to read the headlines. Sometimes my little hands would tire from holding the paper up for them to make up their mind. Most times they would say “No, not today.”  Sometimes I would make a sell and the nickel was my profit to keep. One day a road grader was parked out front and the tires had lots of road tar on them. The guys said they would give me a dime if I would clean the tire.  I got me a stick ready to begin when they stopped me and laughed.  Boy, am I glad they didn’t allow me to proceed.

Before I entered the fourth grade the school bus began to come and carry us to and from the grade school in Justice Addition.  It was a much larger school, and each grade had a separate classroom.  I remember my cousin, Zetta Winters, attending class with me there.  She was six months older than me, and I always felt she was much more intelligent.  At that time, she was the only child in her family, so she had much nicer clothes to wear. 

In the fourth grade one day the teacher asked me a question and I did not know the answer.  The teacher wanted to know why I did not know the answer.  I was embarrassed and placed my head on my desk and began to cry.  I could not talk plain, and it was difficult to express myself.  I did not want to cry, but I could not control the tears. 

During recess one day, we were playing “crack the whip”.  I was on the end of the line of children.  When the leader swung the line, the further down the line you were the more distance the swing moved you.  As the line swung me, they jerked me down and my collarbone was now broken for the second time.

At this school we had indoor toilets, and swing sets on the playground.  While in class one day the students began to go to the window and watch as some dogs chased a deer out of the woods, thru the schoolyard and across the river.

After school, we would wait quite a while for our school bus to come to take us home.  The bus would first go to high school, then Jr high, then West Logan grade school and then our school at Justice Addition, picking up children to carry to Mitchell Heights and Pecks Mill.  During this time, we would play on the school ground or go to the grocery store where the bus picked us up.  Sometimes we would pour all the remaining cola out of the empty bottles into one bottle, and then someone drink it.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Betty were in high school and rode the bus with us. The bus stopped at their house, so we had to walk over there to catch the bus.  Many times, we would be ready for school and go by their house only to find grandma trying to hurry Bill out of bed before he missed the bus.  If we were running late, my mother would put some jelly, or bacon, or egg on a fresh baked biscuit and rush us off with it in our hand to catch the bus.  I was embarrassed to eat things like this in front of the other school children riding our bus.

 My father and grandfather worked for the C&O railroad at Peach Creek.  The railroad hauled coal out of the mountains of southern West Virginia into New York and other industrialized cities.  Dad made about $3.50 a day.  But the day came that he had a back injury and was unable to work months at a time. 

He always had some kind of an old car to drive to work.  Many times, these old cars wouldn’t start until you pushed them.  He would park his car at the top of a hill, beside the road below our house.  Most times some of us children would assist him and mom in pushing the car out of the dirt parking space, onto the paved road and down the hill.  Once the car began to go down the paved hill, it would gain enough speed, so he could force the engine to start.

These were happy days.  Going to school, working in the garden, cutting grass, carrying coal or water and helping however we could.  Mom always loved her children.  Dad and mom worked together with us children to try to improve the living conditions.  My little sister, Nancy was now four years old.  She and I fussed from time to time and I would get into trouble. 

I could not talk plain, and people would tease me about my speech.  Mom would encourage me and tell me that her brother Jr. could not talk plain until he was about 14 years old.  One day I left my schoolbooks on the schoolyard when I caught the bus to come home.  Mom told me to go to grandma’s house and use the telephone to ask the teacher to take them in the schoolhouse for me.  Uncle Woodrow & Aunt Hildred lived at grandma’s house, and they could not understand me as to why I needed to use the telephone.  Woodrow made me repeat it several times, and laughed at me, because I could not speak plain.  He finally gave me permission to use my grandmother’s telephone.  For the next 40 years, he would tell other people, in front of me of how I had said ” I left my goould books on the goould yard.”  He never knew how bad it would make me feel each time he laughed and told this.

My mother’s parents moved to a farm on Merritt’s creek, near Salt Rock, W.Va., which was about 40 miles N.W. of Logan on route 10.  We loved to go visit them, to see the farm animals.  Other relatives were usually there.  We would usually help hoe corn or assist in the farm chores.  There was always plenty of milk, butter, eggs, jelly etc. to eat at Grandma Hale’s home.  The lights were natural gas as they did not have electricity.  She heated her irons on the coal stove to heat them, so she could iron clothes.  The wash machine had a gasoline engine, and we carried water from the creek for her to wash. I don’t remember ever being concerned about more people than bed. No indoor plumbing so we didn’t worry about being a little dirty; just wash off in the wash pan.

Near the kitchen door Grandma had a cellar house which was dug into the side of the hill. It was much cooler than inside the house. She would keep the milk, butter and other perishables in this cellar house.

We younger children would help feed the chicken and pick up the eggs out of the chicken nests.  We liked to visit the pen behind the house where the mother hogs and her little pigs were.

Grandpa Hale was good to us and would sometimes let us ride the sled the horses pulled.  Occasionally we even rode on the horses back.  He was protective of the horses because he knew they worked very hard plowing the ground and pulling the sled most every day.

Dad built a place under our chicken house for some pigs. He fenced in an area for them to live in.  One weekend we visited the farm and returned home with many vegetables plus three little pigs.  The car must have been full of all of that plus my parents and five children.   After arriving home, we put the three pigs in their new home on the hillside behind our house.  The next day the little pigs routed out underneath the fence and were running loose on the hillside.  We boys had a wonderful time chasing the pigs and catching them.  We quickly found out how fast pigs can run.

Another time, my dad brought home a pair of goats, so we began to have goat milk to drink.  Each day we would stake the goats out in the front yard.  The collars around their necks were tied to a chain that was fasted to the tree in the front yard.  They had plenty of grass to eat and we had milk to drink.

Dad and Mom made a hotbed to grow plants from seeds.  They mixed cow manure, cut grass, chicken manure, fertilizer and other things with the soil.  They then put a large piece of glass over the bed to cause the sunrays to heat the rich soil.  In a few days the seeds sprouted and began to grow into small green plants.  In a few weeks the tomato, cabbage and pepper plants were large enough to transplant into our gardens.  If the weather were expected to be cold, we would cover each plant with a glass jar for the night. The next morning, we would remove the jar.  We would water these young plants with water from the rain barrels that caught water from the roof of the house.

Water was scarce on the hillside.  It had to be carried in or caught from the rooftop during rains.  During long dry spells, little larva mosquitoes would hatch in the stagnant water inside the rain barrels.  When it would begin to rain, we would go outside and dump all the stagnant water with the “wiggle tails” so the empty barrels would fill with the fresh rainwater from the rooftop.

My dad injured his back while working for the railroad.  He was helping move some freight and pinched a nerve in his back. The C&O doctors in Huntington operated and placed 2 silver screws in his spine.  It helped make the pain more bearable, but he lived with pain the rest of his life.  Before death 40 years later he wrote that he had not been without pain for a single day.  In spite of the pains, he worked for the C&O plus raised a garden and farm animals.  He was very industrious and taught his children to work and do their best to earn a good living.  He would lift and carry things any time something needed to be done.  He assisted and directed his children in whatever needed to be done.

We attended church at the Aracoma Church of God.  This was the red brick church on the side of the hill on the west side of highway 10 about 2 miles North of the town of Logan.  The first pastor I can remember was C. R. Cook.  The state overseer was Rev. Hicks followed by Paul H. Walker.  Fennis J. Dake held a revival and taught from a large chart he placed across the front of the church.  The chart covered every book in the bible, from Genesis to Revelations.  Grandpa John Winters led the singing and Aunt Lois played the piano.  I was very young when my parents went to the altar.  I could not understand when people told me my mother was happy, when she cried tears while praying at the altar.

In Aracoma the black people were not allowed to live on the front street.  They lived on back street next to the hillside.  This is where our church was located.  The black people would often come and stand outside the front door, looking in and listening to the singing and shouting.  There was one black lady who did attend our church; she would sit on the right-hand side, the third row from the front.  I did not know any Jews although I now realize that some of the uptown merchants were Jewish.

Perhaps we were prejudice toward the black and the foreigner who spoke with an accent.  We were taught to respect all people and all races and color. The white people had our own schools and the black people had segregation schools. They were mostly referred to as colored people or Niggers. Negro or “black people”. We were not taught that the names were offensive. I have been referred to as a hillbilly but never consider it offensive. Our people living down south accepted being called a cracker or Georgia cracker.

Our church had a program on radio station WLOG on Sunday afternoon. On December 7, 1941, I was 8 years old.  Pearl Harbor was bombed and the news reports on the radio kept interrupting the afternoon church broadcast with the latest reports on the American crisis.  I remember thinking that the radio station would not interrupt the church broadcast if it was any church other than the Church of God.

They preached; Church of God was the only church that was teaching what was right.  Its members were the only ones for sure going to heaven.  Most of the other denominations were hardly Christians and were leading many people to hell.  Baptist, Catholic and all the other uptown churches were not really of God and did not believe in the Holy Spirit and Holiness was necessary to enter heaven.  I would not even consider attending one of these churches until 8 or 9 years later, when I attended the Church of Christ occasionally with other teen-age friends.  If any of my relatives did not attend Church of God, I was very concerned they might not go to heaven in the rapture.

Much of the preaching was on the rapture, heaven and hell.  Christians did not smoke, drink, chew, gamble, lie etc.  Women wore long hair, long sleeves, and did not wear clothing pertaining to a man. They were forbidden to wear any lipstick, fingernail polish, or jewelry.

At the age of 9 my family moved to 622 Marcum Terrace in Huntington, which was about 60 miles down the Guyandotte River from where we lived at Pecks Mill.  Marcum Terrace was a rather new brick apartment complex build by the Federal government.

My dad had arranged for my Uncle Sam Kazee to move the furniture in his pickup truck.  After most of the furniture was loaded my dad took my mother, my sister Nancy, my brother Jack and I in dad’s car and we drove ahead so dad could go to work at 4 p.m. at his new job in Huntington.  We had left my two older brothers Donald and Tom to assist my uncle with the furniture.  We expected them to arrive a couple of hours after we arrived.  They did not arrive before Dad’s work time, so Dad went on to work.  Dad called back every hour or so to see if they had arrived.  Dad and Mom began to really worry when it began to get dark, and they had not arrived.  I remember my mother sitting in the only chair we had brought in the car with us.   It was a piece of a board across the arms of a child rocker.  When dad got off work at midnight the truck still had not arrived, so he began to drive back toward Logan to find them.   About one-hour latter the truck arrived but now Dad was gone.  Dad called back about five a.m. saying he had made it to Harts Creek and had ran out of gas.

My brothers were so late because the tires were badly worn on the pick-up.  They had about one dozen flat tires during the 60-mile journey with the heavy load of furniture.  In those days you glued a cold patch over the hole in the inner tube to fix a flat and then pumped it up with a hand pump.  It would take about one hour to fix each flat tire and that it why they were so late. In Marcum Terrace we lived in an apartment with three bedrooms and a bath upstairs also a kitchen, dining, living room downstairs.  Living conditions here were greatly improved as we had running water and an indoor bathroom with a bathtub.   Now we would no longer need to use the galvanized washtub to bath in. Having indoor plumbing was much better than using the path to the outdoor toilet.

Over 100 families lived in Marcum Terrace, so we had many playmates.  We learned to skate on the sidewalks and to ride bicycles.  My brother and I participated a limited amount with the Boy Scout troop.  The 10th Avenue Church of God was the center of most of our worship and religious training.

I entered the fifth grade in the Payton Elementary School and latter entered the 7th grade at Lincoln Junior High. My brother Tom began working in a supermarket, as he was a student at East Senior High School.

My Grandmother Hale would bring in a pickup truckload of vegetables and chicken from her farm which was located about 15 miles away on Merritt’s Creek.  I would help sell these items by going from door to door within Marcum Terrace.   My mother and her good friend, Mrs. Woods would bake donuts, breads, and pastries and I would also go door-to-door selling these.

These were the years of World War II (1941-1945).  Many things were rationed, such as gasoline, tires, meats, sugar etc.   Small plots of ground were made available for each family to raise a victory garden.  Savings or War stamps were sold for ten cents each to help raise money for the defense of the USA.  We sang patriotic songs at school for each branch of service.  We would contribute to the March of Dimes.  The Japanese and the Germans were very much an enemy in our minds.  President Roosevelt had been in office since 1932 so he was the only president I had ever lived under.  I felt very loyal and Patriotic to our president and the military efforts.  I do not recall any local or state politics.

Big-little books and comic books were very popular, so we would swap these with playmates, so we would have something different to read.  This was before the days of television.  We had one or two friends who we would sometimes go visit an hour or two to play some games, but Mom expected us to be nearby most of the time.

One Friday my two older brothers and I decided we would go to the farm for a weekend.  We walked the 15 miles after school and got there about dark.  My brother Donald “thumbed” at many a car but they all just passed up these 3 young boys on the highway.   Another time we spent a couple of weeks on the farm in June 1944.   When we arrived home, we found we had a new baby sister named Mary Sue.  I do not remember knowing of the word pregnant or talk of the family expecting a baby.

Etna Robinson, the brother of my Grandmother Addie lived on Oakland Avenue 3 houses from Sycamore Street, near Norway Avenue about one mile from us.  My Great Grandmother Mary Winters lived out on 16th Street Road.  We would visit these families from time to time.

When visiting Grandma Mary Winters, Dad would usually take her a bag of groceries and we would sit and listen to her talk for what seemed like an hour or two.  Many times, she repeated the same stories that she had told us about some of her neighbors on previous visits.  She was feeble and liked for us to come and visit.

We collected used newspaper for the cause of defense.  Our picture appeared in one local paper recognizing the large amount we had collected. I volunteered to cut the grass in the small yards for the tenants of Marcum Terrace. I would charge a dime or 20 cents. I was learning business and free enterprise. The push style lawn mower without any motor was furnished by the landlord. My only investment was my child labor which didn’t have much value as a 12 or 13-year-old. To me a dime was valuable because I didn’t have any. We managed to get a pair or used roller skates and eventually a very much used bicycle. There were plenty of paved sidewalks to play on as well as two public playgrounds with the usual gym set. Living in Marcum Terrace was very different from the living on the hillside at Pecks Mill.

One day my parents told us children that we were moving back to our home on the hillside in Pecks Mill.  There would be more ground for gardening etc.  It may have had something to do with Dad’s railway clerks’ job too.  It seems to me that we were somewhat disappointed, and we knew that it would be more difficult on Mom to leave the modern apartment complex and return to county living without indoor plumbing, running water etc. Now I wonder if my parents didn’t feel the county was a better place for their teenagers than the apartment complex in the big city. Donald and I were joining our peers in picking up cigarette butts off the curbs on the way home from school and smoking them. After a few tries at this Brother Callahan a member of the Church of God saw me and threatened to tell my parents if he saw me do it again; so, I quit. I also regret that I also stole some small parts for my used bicycle on two or three occasions from the Western Auto Shop in Huntington. Thank God I did not get caught and have the police dealing with me. That was over 70 years ago, and I haven’t forgotten it. How much better it would have been if I had not done these things. I do not remember my parents having ever known.

After a few months at living back at Pecks Mill my dad purchased a 68-acre farm up on Crooked Creek.  Before long he installed an electric pump connected it to the well and piped the water into the house.  He also remodeled the house and added on two bedrooms and an inside bathroom.

My parents were hard workers. They and most of their siblings had only a grade school education. I think Mom may have attended the 10^th or the 11^th grade. Their parent thought it was necessary they go to work to help their large family survive the tough life in the Appalachian Mountains during the time of the great depressions of 1910 – 1940.

When I was about 6 years old my dad injured his back while working at the C&O Railroad freight terminal. He was operated on several times and the doctors placed silver screws in his spine. After Dad died 40 years later, he said he had endured or suffered pain every day he lived after the operation. Dad was always busy working in the railroad office, or on our small farm and in the garden. He was always busy raising animals for meat, vegetables, and fruit providing for our large family. Mom was always by his side helping made provision for all of us.

I turned 13 and learned to drive a horse to plow and do other chores on the farm.  Dad and Mom both worked very hard to harvest corn, potatoes, beans and other crops.  Cows, pigs and chickens provided a good diet of meats for the six children.  My cousin Dickey and Johnnie spend several months living with us after their mother died with tuberculosis.

I would often milk the cow before going to school.  One morning I put my dungarees on over my pajama to help keep me warm from the cold air. On the bus ride to school I noticed I still had the pajama bottom on so I just rolled the legs up so no one would know the difference.

After school I had chores or areas of responsibility also such as hoeing in the garden etc. At age 14 I would plow gardens for neighbors and earn money. One Saturday I work all day plowing a large garden and I always remember that they never paid me the $8.00 for my services. Perhaps they need the money more than I did.

Dad allowed a foreigner from either Hungary or Romania to live in a room attached to our chicken house on our farm at Crooked Creek.  What little English he spoke was very heavily accented and he was referred to as a “Hunky man”. His name was Louie Tudor.  Louie was too old to work in the mines and had to live in the old folks’ home on Big Creek.  He preferred to live on our farm where he helped with the farm animals and did some light chores.  He smoked “five brother’s tobacco”; his favorite food was spaghetti.

It was easy to stay busy after school.  I delivered the Logan Banner Newspaper for a couple of years.  I purchased a new Hawthorne bicycle for $11.00 from Montgomery Ward thru their sales catalog when I was 14 years of age.  If I could have afforded only $2 more, I could have had a more deluxe Hawthorne bike with a horn and a better brake system, but money was scarce. I was proud of this new bicycle and rode it on the railroad right of way to Junior High School up in Logan.  Then after school I would ride back to Peach Creek to get my papers to deliver to the residents.  The rain and snow could make some miserable winter weather, but the newspapers had to be delivered.  I would stop to rest at Barbara and Pam McMullen’s home.  Sometimes I would eat supper with them.  They were a couple of years older than me but very friendly.

During my 8th grade at the West Logan school everyone took a class in West Virginia history, the two students who made the highest grade in Logan County were awarded a golden horseshoe. I was one of the two for winners for Logan County. It sure felt good to be recognized by my peers and family. Until this time my brother Tom was the family member that was consider so smart and my grade were not very good.

I did not have much time for sports and other electives in school.  I felt the need to leave the school each day as early as possible, so I could earn money.  I took four subjects and would get out of school early in the afternoon.  English, math, history, plus one other. I attended very few ball games and was not on any of the sports teams.  I felt as if those were luxurious parts of life that I was not supposed to waste my time with. In the 9th grade several of the schools combined at the same location on the hillside in Logan. In algebra our teacher was a pretty young teacher name Mrs. Jackson,  I got an A- in our first year of algebra. My cousin Zetta and many of her peer were surprised as most of them had a disappointing grade. My self esteem soared and I was so proud of myself.

During the 10th grade I made an “A” in American History and then took public speaking from the same teacher Mayor Tom Orr.  In class I gave my speech titled “How Lucky I Am”.  It extolled on things like good health, American citizenship etc. compared with people with broken arms and people without freedom.   Mr. Orr appeared to be impressed by my presentation and recommended me to receive a scholarship to a one-week summer conservation camp over near White Sulphur Springs.  I felt very privileged and enjoyed the camp.  This was the first time I remember having been away from home and on my own.  The Ladies Garden Club of Logan had sponsored me.

I recall when I was about 10 years of age, I prayed the prayer of salvation, during a Sunday school class meeting at the Aracoma Church of God.  Lovell Cary was home that day from Bible Training School and was teaching our class. He wanted every student to be saved before the class was dismissed.  I remember being asked to testify in the Morning Worship as to how we had asked Jesus to save us.  I was holding Mary Sue on my lap at that service.  This is the first time I remember Lovell who later became a very important friend.  

Lovell Carey returned to Bible College. When he returned home, he brought Virginia Glass, his new bride with him.  They began to evangelize in West Virginia.  

The family was attending the Mill Creek Church of God at this time. Lovell later decided to begin a revival campaign in the Crooked Creek neighborhood.  The Winters family helped him get permission to use the local elementary grade school building for the meeting.  This newly married couple lived during this time in my Winters family home.  Those were exciting and memorable days for the Winters family with six children plus Lovell and Jenny.  A special friendship developed that has lasted a life-time.

This was glorious revival, lasting six weeks with over 100 people getting saved.  The schoolhouse was full every night.  There was no advertisement.  The message was carried by word of mouth.  This meeting impacted my life.  Once you taste such a move of God as this, you can never be satisfied with a mediocre Christian experience.

In January 1949, Rev. Messer began to hold a revival at the Mill Creek Church of God.  On Sunday night my sister Nancy went to the altar; accepted Jesus and became a Christian.  As I returned to the inside of the church to warm by the heat stove, she put her arms around my neck and testified of how happy she was and encouraged me to make Jesus my Lord and Savior.  Conviction gripped my heart!  I purposed to heed her advice.  The next night was a Monday and I had previously agreed with my brother Donald that I would escort his girlfriend Betty Stephens to the Kings Kids meeting, therefore I did not go to the revival that night.  On Tuesday night I attended church having already purposed in my mind that I would go to the altar.  I sat near the front of the church on the left-hand side.  As soon as Rev. Messer gave the altar call, I headed for the altar. I did not want to miss out on anything this life changing.   In those days in West Virginia when people got saved, they prayed through, wept and repented and had a real experience.  On January 18, 1949, at the age of 15, my priorities were set. I would walk with God.

As soon as Rev. Messer ask me, I left my seat and went forward.  Today, after 70 years I still consider this to be the most important decision I have ever made.  I made it on my own and I have never regretted it.  I was saved from my sins and the Love of Jesus entered my heart.  The best I can remember now I was filled with such Joy and Peace that for a few minutes I did not ever know what was happening around me.  It was as if I fell asleep or lost consciousness with my surroundings. 

Within a few months I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues.  I did not lose awareness of what was going on like I did the night I was saved.  I had been attending church since I was a small child.  I had been to the altar on numerous occasions previously.  I loved Jesus, but on Tuesday January 18, 1949, at the age of 15, something special happened in my life.  It was different.  A few weeks later I was baptized in water on the right-hand fork or Mill Creek.  It was so cold that ice was forming on the water edge but that did not hinder us young converts.  We wanted to follow Jesus all the way. I have never backslid or changed my direction. I am determined to serve Jesus all the days of my life.

The weather was very hot the following summer as I worked several days moving a small portion of the hillside next to my aunt Hildred’s home. I was 16 and working alone digging and shoveling the dirt into a wheelbarrow.  I would haul it a few hundred feet and dump it over the hillside in another location. I had plenty of time to meditate. I thought of how deceiving satan is and how he traps people into a life of sin. Satan lies and deceives people by making things look good, when in fact they are just traps to capture the mind and send people to hell. I thought, “It is just like a carnival midway with all the bright lights, colorful signs, and loud exciting music attracting everyone’s attention.  There is the barter, or announcer with the microphone blaring bidding you to come on in and have a good time. Inside always leads to hell. There are numerous variations of the outside attractions and many different barters with different pitches but once you come inside behind the curtain it all leads to hell. Satan always makes sin look good. Cigarettes look good, alcoholic beverages look good, gambling looks good, illicit sex looks good, every sinful thing on the carnival midway of life is made to look good by satan but once you follow his path you end up in one place–. Hell.” I have never forgotten those meditations. Someone may call it a spiritual experience. Others might say it was the sweating in the hot sun just got to his brain, but I remembered it; and after 70 years I still believe it. The wages of sin is death.

During high school, I also worked in the R&M grocery store in Aracoma for my Uncle Ralph and Aunt Marvel. They later transferred the store to her brother, my uncle Charlie Hale who was married to Evelyn Ramson. I first worked for Uncle Ralph several years earlier when he operated a melon stand on the front porch of a little store located on the curve in Aracoma selling watermelons etc.  I was working there when he applied for work at the C&O railroad.  I recall how I was the only person in the roadside market when a highway patrolman stopped to purchase a watermelon.  I did not want him to know I was frightened of him and was surprised when he paid me for the melon. I would have willingly given him any item without pay.

In my senior years of high school and the year after graduation, I worked for Uncle Ralph and Aunt Marvel at the Logan Plant Store, which was on the triangle at the end of the bridge entering the town of Logan. They were great people to work for and they helped me gain self-confidence. I began to order merchandise from the suppliers as well as sell to the customers. During the fall and winters business was very slow, and in my spare time I would fiddle with any automobile I owned. 

When I was 15 years of age, I purchased a new motor bicycle.  It was a bicycle with a motor mounted below the crossbar. The tire rim had an extra rim attached that allowed a belt from the motor to turn the rear wheel. My friend and I rode our bike to about 45 miles down route 10 for the experience and thrill of crossing the Harts Creek mountains. We had a headlight on our bikes and were not afraid. After a visited my Aunt Evelyn and her family we rode our bikes back to our homes on Crooked Creek.

By the time I was 16 Dad purchased an old beat up wrecked International panel truck. The rear doors would not close, so I removed them. I took a hammer and beat the dents out of the fenders. I painted it a bright medium blue color and recovered the two bucket seats with leather. I was proud of my accomplishments.

People on Crooked Creek discarded anything they did not want into the creek. I noticed there were pieces of old cars and other scrap metal in the creek.  My cousin Johnny was two years my junior and lived with us insomuch as his mother had died a few years earlier in Phoenix AZ. I recruited Johnny and several other younger boys to help recover the scrap iron with the promise of some of the profit.  Many years latter Johnny, after spending 20 years in the US Marine Core, when in my presence would refer to himself as “5% John”. Milking of the cows was one of the choirs that Johnny was asked to assist me with. It was hard for him to understand why he should have to plow, cut hay, hoe or do things like that. He felt that he only lived with us and those things were not necessary for him. He and I had great times together although we often disagreed.  I don’t know how my mother survived all of us in that small house the way we played, fussed and wrestled with each other.

There were always additional people spending time at our home. Johnny’s brother Dickey lived with Grandma Winters, however he stayed with us part of the time. When we got the first TV in the community many of the neighbors would come over at night and we would move the TV to the front yard, so everyone could watch programs on the 9-inch screen with a 13inch magnifier.  Bob and Bill Carey, brothers of Lovell Cary were among the many visitors.

To further supplement my income, I also used Dad’s horse to plow gardens for our neighbors. The turn plow had to be lifted and swung from right to left or left to right at the end of each row.  Since the plow seemed to weigh about a third as much as I did it was somewhat hard to manage on a steep hillside.

The coalmines in our county removed a seam of coal from the sides of the mountains. These tunnels were several feet wide and the height of the coal seam that was from 30 inches to 48 inches in most of our area.  The mines would purchase timbers to prop up the top or roof of the tunnel as they removed the coal.

A neighborhood friend named Fred Fry who was several years older than me worked in this type of work told me how other people were making money by selling mine timbers. Fred claimed that he knew all about this business and agreed to show me to how to do it. So, I decided that at the age of sixteen that I could open my own business to cut and sell timbers to the mines.  It did not bother me that I did not have any experience, I felt I could learn this business. My Dad’s 68-acre farm had some timber on the steep mountainsides, and he gave me permission to cut it.

I began to cut the 30 to 60-foot-high trees.  I connected the trees with short pieces of chain and then attached them to the horse that would pull them to the steepest part of the mountain where the horse would make a sharp 120-degree turn causing the chain to disengage and the trees would then slide to the bottom of the mountain with me and the horse remaining at the top of the slope. After repeating this process several times, I would connect the horse to the trees at the bottom of the mountain and drag them to the barnyard, where I could saw them into the proper length of 30” to 48” depending upon what size the coalmines had ordered. Of course, I had already contacted the coalmines and convinced the purchasing agent that I could deliver a good product if he would just tell me the size he needed.  It took several phone calls; however, once I got his order, I began operations.

The horse I was using was an old mare that belonged to my dad. On day she made the turn and the logs failed to disengage causing her hind leg to be fouled underneath her and as she tried to get it loose, she lost her balance and began to tumble down the mountainside. No other person was with me and as a 16-year-old boy it was an awful sight to witness the horse tumble many times before stopping about 300 feet below at the foot of the mountain in the little creek. I managed to get the horse up on her feet and she staggered the ½ mile to the barnyard where she lay done and died a few hours later. That was a sad experience; perhaps I was responsible for the horse’s death,

I traded my motorbike for a younger horse and continued to work to fill the order for mine timbers. Now that I was 16 the state would allow me to drive a car, so I purchased an old car from my uncle Bobby Hale in Huntington and drove it across the mountains to Logan.  I paid him $50.00 for it and sold it a few weeks later for a nice profit.

I had great difficulty in getting another person to pull the other end of the crosscut saw to cut the trees into mine timbers.  This was before the days of gasoline chain saws.  The crosscut saw was designed for two men to operate.  It was about 5 feet long with a handle on each end.  Any portion of the log that was larger than 12 inches in diameter would have to be split so that no prop was more than 6 inches in diameter. I would build a fire for firelight, so we could saw and split the logs after dark when I could get Fred on one of the other guys to pull one end of the saw for me.

Finally, I got a truck load of the timbers ready but now I had to arrange for deliver about 15 miles to the coalmines that was located beyond the Church of God on Mill Creek. My Uncle Charlie Hale operated a grocery store in Aracoma, and he owned a Ford pickup truck with high sideboards on it, so I rented it for the trip. Looking back, I think he was probably reluctant, but I drove his truck loaded with timbers up the mountainside on the dirt road leading to the mines. I sent my handwritten invoice to the mining company and after some delay received my check. Business had its hardships and challenges however I liked making the money.

My brother Donald is two years my senior.  He went to work on the C&O railroad and continued to attend high school. He purchased a Crosley automobile and drove in a way that was not at all safe. Many times, he would race to about 56-60 miles per hour and turn the wheel sharply while hitting the brakes causing the car to make a 180 degree turn on the narrow-crooked road. To this day I believe the prayers of my mother were responsible for God sustaining our lives on many such occasions.

Many times, during those early teen years we would sleep overnight back in the mountains just for the fun of it.  We would take some apples or potatoes roast them in our campfire. Most time our campsite was under a large rock cliff, and a few times we built our campfire near the big 6-inch gas line. Fortunately, the gas never caught fire or exploded.

I recall these days as happy times.  We had a corn crop on the side of the mountain. One 4^th of July the corn needed hoeing, so my mother drafted me to help her hoe it. Being it was a national holiday, and most companies allowed their employees the day off, I resented being the only hand helping mom that holiday. Suddenly I observed a groundhog several feet away from me in the cornfield. I picked up a rock and eased over toward the groundhog. When I threw the rock, to my surprise it hit the groundhog and he fell over. That night we had groundhog for dinner. Oh well, 

Between 1904 and 1929, the Logan coalfields boomed. Holden, Omar, and many other coal company towns were created. My grandfather John H. Winters moved from farming in Lincoln county to Logan county during this time. My mom and dad were born 1909 and 1911. I was born in 1933.

Success of Logan county was assured when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad constructed its line from Huntington to the city of Logan in 1904. In the meantime the Norfolk & Western Railroad had built its main line in 1893 on the ‘‘Sandy side,’’ the nickname for the part of Logan County lying within the Big Sandy River valley. Rapid development following the arrival of the railroad in 1895. 

Many left to find employment elsewhere. From a high of approximately 11,000 miners in 1940, the number fell to 1,146 by 2001. Logan County population fell by half, from a peak of 77,391 in 1950 to an estimated 36,168 in 2012.

I graduated from Logan High School in 1950 when the population was near it peak.  In year of 2021 

Logan County, West Virginia‘s estimated population is 31,731 with a growth rate of -1.30% in the past year. I moved to Florida at the right time.

Education

Move the following to a new tab. Lee College

I do not remember during my childhood of ever having a serious conversation of me or my siblings attending college or any schooling beyond high school graduation. We never visited a college campus or had any hopes of ever enrolling in any college. I thought college was only for wealthy people and  I knew money was scarce and higher education would be costly and unaffordable. My parents and grandparents unusually dropped out of public schools before high school graduation to work and help their family survive. The goal for me and my siblings was for us to graduation from high school with a 12 grade education.  No one in the Winters family or the Hale family had enrolled in any college that I knew of.  None of my siblings enrolled in a school of higher learning.

I knew about a Church of God Bible Training School in Cleveland, TN. My uncle Bill Winters and my friend Lovell Cary had attended that school and we were very proud of their accomplishments but that was not one of my consideration. My plans were to work at any place I could make the most money. 

One day after my high school graduation,  my cousin David Robinson and his mother came from Huntington to visit.  Dave challenged me to give up these businesses and enroll in Lee College at Cleveland, TN. My family members came to a party for me, and the small collection of money included a surprise $10.00 from Grandpa Hale. Grandpa John Winters and Grandma Addie Winters gave me a large bible, which I still have today. Going to Lee was a very exciting event for me, as I had not really traveled out of the 100-mile radius of Logan. Uncle Bill Winters was the only other family member to have left Logan to attend college, so it was a very serious matter to me although I hadn’t considered it a possibility until David came by. It was only 2-3 weeks before classes started so we had to rush things up quite a bit.

David’s mother and sister drove us to Cleveland, and assisted us in getting signed in. We went downtown Cleveland and purchased a few items that were necessary for our room and we moved into the Walker Hall dorm, which latter was renamed Medlin Hall. This was my first time to visit any college campus and I was very excited to have this new adventure of being among  these people and living away from home.

But God never called me to preach.  I did not meet a wife.  I even bought a mandolin, hoping I could have a music ministry.  Jim Humbertson tried to teach me to play the mandolin, but the flow did not go to my brain.  I tried voice lessons from Mr. Andrew Yates, but he gave up on me.  I traveled with A.T. Humphries and the campus choir but decided that God had given the ear for music to someone else.

I did not like being without money.  I decided to do something about it.  I went looking for an opportunity. I walked down the street in Cleveland, TN to Callaway’s Grocery Store and asked if they had any work I could do.  They asked me what I wanted to do.  The answer was “Whatever you want me to do.”  When asked how much pay you have to have? ”I answered, “Whatever I am worth to you is what you can pay me.”  As a college student I began to work for fifty cents an hour bagging groceries and cutting meat.  I walked to work every Saturday morning from Walker Hall (now Medlin Hall).  Then walked back to Lee College dining room for lunch and returned to the grocery store to work the remainder of the day.

Calloway’s was located the corner of Central Ave. and Ocoee Street across from where the Bradley County Court House is now located.

Back at the dorm I found a market for hot freshly cooked popcorn in Walker Hall, the boys’ dormitory at Lee. Most nights at about 9:00 p.m., David Robinson, my roommate would begin to pop a little bit of corn and the scent would quickly travel down the hallway and up the stairs. The guys would smell it and come to our room offering to buy some.  We would fold a newspaper and make a cone and fill it with hot popcorn for a dime. Business was so good that I obtained the address from a can of corn and wrote the factory in Evansville, IN. I ordered a 25 pound bag of the un-popped corn, which was a great savings over the cost of buying it in a 10-ounce can. No one could ever explain why the dorm supervisors allowed this enterprise to exist when cooking was not allowed in any rooms. I suspect the supervisors may have found the hot popcorn too much of a temptation themselves. My classmates best remembered me for the popcorn venture.

Funds were not adequate for college expenses so after one semester I gave up the idea of college and decided to return home in January 1951. I did not know anything about student loans or grants. About 8 years later the government started the student loan program in 1958. 

End of  Lee College

University of Florida 

College of William and Mary

American University while employee of Tip Top

Back in Logan, I worked for a dry cleaner and outperformed any person who had previously held that route. I went back in the hollers where the road was very bad and solicited dry cleaning from people who had not been called upon for some time. Many of them had coats etc. that were badly in need of dry cleaning. While delivering to one of my customers in a nice neighborhood the husband was the manager for the local Electrolux Vacuum Cleaners Sales Agency.  He told me of how much money his salespeople were making and hired me right on the spot. I gave proper notice to the dry cleaners and began selling vacuum cleaners.  This was good sales training. Everyone was much older than me and had lots of experience. We would travel up to about 100 miles into the various coal mining neighborhoods and go door to door selling. Harlem Kentucky was one town that was a good market. Many years later I learned that it was very risky for a 19-year-old boy to be going door to door in that town, especially after dark. 

In April 1951 I purchased a Dodge pickup truck which I later traded for a 1948 Plymouth car on November 19, 1951.

My father’s health became worse because of the pinched nerves in his back. The doctor prescribed that he relocate to a warmer climate and suggested he move to either Florida or Arizona.  Dad chose Florida and decided to move near Frostproof, FL to escape the cold. It sounded good to me. I had hardly been out of West Virginia, and it was exciting. I would just need to get a job to make my car payments and help support the family. I resigned from Electrolux and became entitled to begin drawing monthly payouts on the contingences or reserves I had accumulated while working for them.

Lovell and Genny Carey had moved to her hometown in Florida, where Lovell served as an Associate Pastor at the Eloise church in Winter Haven.  Our family decided to join Lovell and Jenny in Winter Haven.  So, I gave up my vacuum cleaner job. Dad sold the farm, the animals, the house, and the furniture. On Sunday January 14, 1952, Mom and Dad had Sunday dinner with Hildred, Marvell, Mildred, Zetta and Maxine. On Monday we ate at Ralph’s with Raymond and Grandma Addie. My un-air-conditioned 1948 model Plymouth was loaded with four of the family members (dad, mom, Mary Sue, and I) plus our clothing and household goods.  On Tuesday the 16^th we were off to Florida for a new life for all of us. This was the first time any of my family had been to Florida. On January 17, 1952, we arrived in Floral City where we spent 2 nights in a cabin owned by Rat Burns who lived on Crooked Creek. We went to a used furniture store and purchased a mattress and oil cooking stove because we expected to stay several weeks. However, the next day we drove to Winter Haven to visit Lovell and Jenny. They quickly convinced us to come further south to Winter Haven.

We had arrived in Florida without any idea of where any of us would live or work.  Because of such a deep friendship with the Carey’s, we spent the first few days with Lovell Carey’s in-laws.  Some members of the Winters family slept on the floor, but we felt welcome and happy to be with friends. Other church members accepted us as friends immediately. The warm sunshine of Florida sure felt good compared to the cold winter air of West Virginia.

As soon as we arrived in Florida, we began to attend the Eloise Church of God.

Rev. Mitchell Thomas was the pastor and Lovell was the associate Pastor. We rented a furnished house on 1^st Street in Wauneta and on Feb 16, 1952, we took a picture of our family in front of the rented house. The Bass family lived one street over and their daughter Alice later married Eugene Boyd. They became the father of Tony Boyd who is now married to Marsha the daughter of my brother Jack.

The Eloise church was a very exciting and active church. They had a large screened-in outdoor kitchen and dining area. They would have fish fries, chicken fries and sell the dinners to the workers at the Snively Citrus packing house nearby. Socials and youth functions were regular events. This church had mothered a church at Rifle Range and was planning to build a church in West Winter Haven. Later they built another church at 7^th Street and Avenue E SW in Winter Haven.

WITHIN A WEEK I MET MARY NELL KING THIS 15 YEAR OLD GIRL BECOME THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN MY LIFE.

READ OUR STORY

I helped provide the support for my parents and I had a monthly car payment. I needed money, so I soon got a job picking fruit for Mr. McTeer the father of Hinson McTeer.  I picked fruit from 5:00 a.m. in the morning daylight until dark.   I only made $4.10 a day with this job.  Feeling responsible for helping to support my family, I decided to find a job with better pay. The next morning my car tire was flat, so I missed the departure of the fruit picking truck. I fixed my car tire and started looking for another job. I made plans, expecting God to direct me.

My faith was fixed.  I knew that faith is a major ingredient in obtaining the blessings of God.  I knew his faith was vital if I was going to break out of the bonds of insufficiency.   I drove until I saw an aluminum sign that had the name of Race & Race Irrigation Company on it. It was located on Highway 17 between Winter Haven and Lake Alfred.  I walked in and said, “Hi!  My name is Dan Winters.  I am looking for a job.”   George Mullins the office manager liked my driving personality.   They hired me on the spot; February 15, 1952. This was a “God thing.”  This job came from the Lord.  I knew that I had the favor of the Lord, and that God was blessing me. My starting salary was $225.00 per month which was good for those times. George was an accountant and a real gentleman. He and I remained lifetime business friends.

Nancy and Jack had caught the Greyhound bus in Logan and rode to join us in Winter Haven. They both enrolled in Winter Haven High School where they shared some classes with Mary Nell.

Dad purchased a dilapidated house that the Veterans Administration had repossessed at 1214 seventh Street SW across from the Southside Baptist Church annex for $1 ,400.  He worked very hard replacing the interior wall covering, the roof and other essentials. I assisted when I could.

These were happy times. Citrus and vegetables were plentiful. Dad made church friends with George Jackson, LC Bilbrey and others. Jackson owned the Rainbow Boat Basin on the Lake Howard-Lake May canal. Dad began working with him operating the boats and giving ski instructions to the many young men who were flight students in training at the Bartow Air Base. Dad also became a fishing guide and had free use of the several boats and motors from the boat basin.  He provided plenty of fish, so fish fries with the friends and family became regular events. Florida Cypress Gardens was nearby, and Dad would take us in the boat thru the canals and we could view the ski show free of cost. The citrus and flowers were so beautiful. It was only an hour drive to the Gulf of Mexico or to the Atlantic Ocean.

Many of the relatives came from West Virginia to visit us and witness this new life we were enjoying in the land of sunshine. During first four months visitors included. Tom & Maxine, Donald & Betty, Grandma Addie & Grandpa John, Jim, Ralph & Marvell, David and Dorothy Robinson, Garland and Belva, Woodrow and Hildred and several others.  Marvin Dial and his truck driving friend came for a load of watermelons and spent the night with us.  All the friends and relatives were welcome and there was always room on the floor for another person to sleep although we all had to share the one bathroom.

My mother got a job at Erick’s department store downtown on 4^th street NW. She was a very good salesperson, and she maintained a good rapport with the migrants and minorities. Although the Erick’s were Jew who migrated from Germany my mother talked about the Lord to everyone, and they seemed to love her. Mary Nell also worked at Erick’s on Saturday. She later worked for the Winter Haven Herald, a weekly newspaper owner by George Burr the mayor of Winter Haven. His wife Josephine managed the business and liked Mary Nell who was a DCT student at Winter Haven High School. Jack was also in DCT and worked for Poitras Electric on Central Avenue. Nancy was a DCT student and soon got an office job for Central Truck Lines which was located within walking distance of our home.

Erick’s had a big business on Saturday as the crew leaders would bring the migrant workers to Erick’s to buy their clothes. Of course, Erick gave the crew leaders some form of remuneration. On Saturday if I was off work at Race & Race I would also help out at Erick’s.  I am sure Mary Nell was my primary interest in the department store. Otherwise, I could only see her a few hours each week.

At Race & Race, beginning Feb 15, 1952, I first worked in the office in the bookkeeping department.  Then on July 7^th I was promoted to timekeeper in the plant. I often worked overtime on Saturdays unloading pipe or boxes from railroad cars onto trucks.  I only weighed about 125 pounds so it this was tough work, but I would work with the common labor crew at hard labor just to make money. My cousin Marvin Dial moved down from Logan and got a job at the same company. Also, Mary Nell’s brother Joe began to work there.

After working in the office at Race and Race only about 5 months I was promoted as “timekeeper” and “shipping clerk” in the plant. Later in February 1953 I was bonded and given the legal responsible of being custodian of the inventory during the vacation period of my superior. During one vacation period the company placed me in charge of the entire assembly plant, which had dozens of older employees. Somehow everything apparently ran smoothly with this 19 -year-old in charge. Looking back, I don’t know how I avoided conflict from guys who had worked there 15 or 20 years and obviously knew far more than I did. I often felt that Joe King resented having to report to me…but I always tried to be nice to him. On December 8, 1952, I sold my Plymouth and purchase a 1950 Ford car. In 1954 I turned the car in to the dealer as deposit on a new Oldsmobile.

I attended the 7th & 8th grades at the West Logan Grade School.  I was an average student.  During the 8th grade I received the “Golden Horseshoe” award for achievements in W.Va. history. Only 2 students from each county received the award therefore I felt much honored for having been selected as one of the two from Logan County 8^th grade students. Next year students from various grade schools were co-mingled into the 9th grade uptown in Logan.  When our first reports cards came out much to my surprise, I had made the honor roll and had an “A” in algebra.  I began to realize that I could make good grades the same as the aristocratic kids or the kids from well to do families. My attitude about myself was beginning to change and my self-confidence began to develop. 

About the WV Golden Horseshoe Award

One of the highlights of the eighth-grade year is the opportunity for a student to become a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe. This prestigious program takes its name from the golden horseshoes given to the early explorers of West Virginia. In 1716 the Governor of the Virginia colony, Alexander Spotswood, saw the need for exploration of the land west of the Allegheny Mountains, most of which is now West Virginia. The governor organized a party of about 50 men, all of whom adopted the pledge, “Sic jurat transcendere monte,” which means “Thus he swears to cross the mountains.” Governor Spotswood presented each member of his party with a small golden horseshoe to commemorate the bravery of those who crossed the mountains into Western Virginia, beginning the Golden Horseshoe tradition.

West Virginia Golden Horseshoe Database
Item Details:	Record Id: 2139
Year:	1946
Name:	Danny Winters
County:	Logan
Location:
School:

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While working at Tip Top TV & Appliance the National Association of Appliance Dealers offered a one week management course at the American University in Washington, D.C.  My employers agreed that it would be good for me to attend. I learned a lot during this week. Radio Corporation of America, Westinghouse, and other major appliance manufactures provided some of their top managers to speak at the class sessions of subjects such as selling, collections and management. Professor Weis spoke on physiology and clues of what causes employees to loose their temper, etc. This was a great week of learning from some very talented individuals.

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.