wendy windsor Archives - Bill Windsor

Billy Windsor Began School 1954

Billy Windsor and Wendy Windsor in a stroller in 1954.
Billy, Tony, and Wendy Windsor at Grandma and Grandpa Johnsons House in Danville Virginia in 1954.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor with life preservers at the pool in 1954.
Billy Windsor Report Card 1954-55
Billy Windsor Report Card 1954-55
Billy Windsor Report Card 1954-55
Billy Windsor was still taller than his brother Tony in 1954.
Billy Windsor, Tony Windsor, and Wendy Windsor at her highchair in 1954.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor sharing a chair in 1954.

I attended five of my six years of elementary school in Texarkana Texas; that is where Billy Windsor Began School 1954. I started at age 5 in the first grade at Oaklawn Elementary School, and I turned age 6 after two months. I did not attend Kindergarten. I don’t believe we had it back then.

My parents both had beautiful handwriting, but my hand simply would not cooperate. I tried. First-grade teacher, Lois Roy, was being kind when she gave me a B+ in Penmanship. Billy Windsor Began School 1954.

My first memories are from 1954. We were a family of five.

My Dad, Walter, was quite a presence. He was 6-feet three-and-a-half inches tall. That made him a giant back in those days. My Dad had the best male speaking voice ever, very deep.

My Mom, Mary, was the sweetest and best mother ever to live.

I adored my baby sister, Wendy.

Billy Windsor was still taller than his brother Tony in 1954.

My brother, Tony, and I were inseparable until school separated us.

I remember seeing and loving Pinocchio.

I remember it was a big deal to go to Furr’s Cafeteria on Sundays for dinner.

I walked to and from Oaklawn Elementary School. Dad was the General Manager of KCMC-TV on the other side of town, and Mom did not have a car or a driver’s license.

My Dad was always a celebrity. That was cool. My Mom was always the best. That was cool.

Billy Windsor does drawing on KCMC-TV in 1954.

I first appeared on TV in 1954. I believe this was a drawing for Queen for a Day.

I remember going to a classmate’s birthday party. They served cupcakes. I had never seen a cupcake. It was in a paper “cup.” I ate it all and then feared I would die from what I realized was paper. I lived.

One of my least fond memories is that I was too shy to ask permission to use the rest room, and I pooped in my pants and sat in it until I mercifully got to walk home. I’m sure it had to stink, but no one said anything. Billy Windsor Began School 1954.

We moved to 4105 Rio Grande Avenue in Texarkana, Texas, and that’s where I attended second grade and received my only report card with Straight A’s. Thank you, Mrs. Kolb.

Billy Windsor First Memories 1953

Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor drinking in 1953.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor all decked out in 1953.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor look very dapper in ties and suspenders in 1953.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor posing next to shrubs in 1953.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor in 1953
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor sitting on front porch in 1953.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor lived on Mimosa Street in 1953.
Billy Windsor and Tony Windsor sitting on a curb in 1953.

My Birth Certificate shows 1948, but Billy Windsor First Memories 1953.

Brother Tony was born 1950 and sister Wendy (aka Woot Woot Wooter) was born 12 days before my fifth birthday in 1953. Billy Windsor First Memories 1953.

windsor bill 1952 Billy and Tony with Walter 1952 big

This is my brother Tony (16 months apart). Our Mom often dressed us alike. I have no idea where she got the money for the clothes as Dad was always underpaid.

I always thought we were rich, but when Dad died and I was the Executor, I learned that he always did without.

I did not have a beard at age 5. LOL. I had a high forehead (like my Dad), so I looked like I had a receding hairline when I didn’t.

I have a small mouth (except when I talk), and Doctors have said I have the ear canals of a six-month old child.

We lived in Columbus, Georgia from 1948 to 1953 where Dad was General Manager of WGBA Radio.

I had been on the radio by age 3. Dad did the play-by-play for the Columbus Cardinals baseball team. I knew all the players, and I would sit with Dad in the Press Box and go on the microphone to comment on plays by my favorites, including second baseman Dom Barczewski. His stats indicate he wasn’t very good, but I liked him for some reason.

I loved to play baseball. I played through high school. I was good on everything but pop files; I couldn’t judge fly balls. It wasn’t until I was in my 50s that I learned I had eye dominance that affected my vision. My eyes told me I was lined up, but I wasn’t. Someone should have told me to close my right eye.

Billy Windsor shows he is 5 years old as he sits by his baby sister.

I loved my baby sister, Wendy. Wendy (aka Woot Woot Wooter) was born 12 days before my fifth birthday in 1953.

I believe I was a very sweet and well-mannered little boy.

I believe I was a good brother and son until junior high school when I know I became too big for my britches.

Dad drove from Long Beach California to Columbus Georgia with Mom nine-months pregnant with me. They hit a cow in Salome Where She Danced, Arizona, but Mom and I hung in there.

Dad checked in at a motel when we arrived. Mom went into labor, and we were taken by ambulance to the City Hospital where I was born at 2:26 a.m. Six pounds, 13 ounces, 10 fingers, and 10 toes.

Dad didn’t want his son to go home from the hospital to a motel, so he rented a house. We lived at 2222 Buena Vistaa Road, 1701 17th Avenue, 1340 17th Street, 4609 Dogwood Drive, and 2834 Mimosa Street.

Dad took a job in television in 1953, and we moved to Duluth, Minnesota to handle the application for the first televison station there. Dad bought a lovely home there at 47th and Robinson. I guess he was planning to stay and manage the station once the license was approved, but a bigger opportunity presented itself.

My first memories are Duluth. SNOW. There was snow everywhere, and Tony and I found a sled in a shed out back. We had a ball in the snow. We built a very solid snowman.

I remember playing in the living room one night when water came down through the ceiling. Someone forgot to turn off the water in the tub when running a bath.

Dad was offered and accepted his second job in television in 1953 as General Manager of KCMC-TV, and we moved to 1700 block of Hickory Street in Texarkana, Arkansas. When Dad went back to Duluth several months later for the closing on the sale of the house, the snowman was still there.

I remember standing on the state line in Texarkana with one foot in Arkansas and the other foot in Texas. Other than that, I don’t remember a thing about Arkansas.

We moved to the Texas side in a rented home, and then we bought 4105 Rio Grande Avenue in Texarkana, Texas.

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Windsor Earliest-known Ancestors date to 1550 in Rheinberg Germany

Walter Windsor holds baby Billy Windsor outside in Columbus Georgia in 1948

For the Windsor Family, the earliest-known ancestors date to 1550 in Rheinberg Germany.

Walter Michael Windsor is my father. He was special. He was the first Windsor, but it was almost 400 years before there was a Windsor.

He was a wonderful father, grandfather, and great-grandfather; a husband who adored his wife, Mary; a talented man who enjoyed a very interesting career, and much more.

Walt was born on September 22, 1918, and he died on February 29, 2008. It is sad to see so much lost when a loved one dies. I hope to save the story of the life of the Walter Michael Windsor Family for generations to come.

The story cannot begin in 1918 because we all have roots. Fortunately, Walter’s third child, my sister Wendy, spent years developing the family genealogy.

Wendy’s work tracing the genealogy history of Walt’s father and mother and their fathers and mothers is excellent.

Wendy has become the leading authority on Walt’s mother’s family, the Catoggios, and her work has enabled us to trace our paternal roots and has helped others find their roots.

Germans and Italians, theaters, and more. Interesting roots…

Walter Michael Windsor was the first Windsor.

His paternal ancestors were Winkopps. The paternal line has been traced back to the birth of Joest Wennkauff in 1550. He died in 1602 in Rheinberg, Germany.

The Winkopp family name was changed over the years – Winkopp from Wincopp, Wincop, Wynkops, Wynchauff, Weinkouffe, and Wennkauff.

The name may have originally been “Wijnkoop,” which is Dutch. The meaning of the name comes from the tradition of traders sealing a business deal with a drink, which was called a “Weinkauff.”

We have traced the family back to the old town of Rheinberg, Germany, in the lower Rhineland near the Dutch border.

Joest Wennkauff was accepted as a citizen of Rheinberg in 1592.

At least four generations lived in the Rheinberg period. From there, the family moved to Erfurt, Aschaffenburg, and Tauberbischofsheim, Germany.

Winkopp descendants have been mayors, magistrates, government officials, barristers, notaries, University Deans, bankers, monks, nuns, historians, restaurant proprietors, show producers, actors, singers, dancers, television executives, authors, merchants, firemen, airline pilots, tailors, and more.

On the paternal side of the Walter Windsor Family, the earliest-known ancestors date to 1550 in Rheinberg Germany.

Joest Wennkauff was born about 1550. He was accepted as a citizen of Rheinberg in 1592. He died in 1602 in Rheinberg, Germany.

Joes Wincoff was one of four generations of Wincoff’s that had been traced to Rheinberg.

Rheinberg is a town in the district of Wessel, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the left Bank of the Rhine, approximately 31 miles north of Dusseldorf.

Claudia Schiffer was born in Rheinberg, too.