Just the abortive beginnings here, but such as it is . . .
Tom: Winifred Robinson Borden – Early Life
Winifred Robinson was born on the 25th of November, 1919. The Robinsons lived in the small south-west Alabama community of Gilbertown, and Winifred was born into a family with four older sisters, Elsie Mae, Josie Fa, Peggy, and Elizabeth (called Wibbie). Over the next nine years, three more children arrived – Eva Nell (known as Micky), David Page, and John Wesley.
When Winnie was born, her father, Thomas Jesse Robinson was working for the Postal Service, delivering the mail in southern Choctaw County on horseback. Soon after Winnie’s birth, he was transferred to the Railway Mail Service, where he continued to work until his retirement. His new duties required the family to move north, first to Ramer in southern Montgomery County, and then to the city of Montgomery. For most of Winifred’s childhood and teen-age years, the family lived on Plum Street, just south of Highland Avenue.
Winifred attended Highland Avenue Elementary School, Capitol Heights Junior High School, and Sidney Lanier High School. She recalled that when they were going to Capitol Heights, she and her sisters would roller skate down Plum Street to Ann Street. Ann Street was not paved at the time, so the girls would stop and remove their skates and carry them over their shoulder the rest of the way.
She was a good student, an enthusiastic reader, and she always recalled her school days with great pleasure. At Lanier, she was a member of what apparently was a very fine Glee Club, directed by Mrs. Wagner. She graduated from Lanier in 1937 with a Commercial Diploma and immediately
began looking for a job.