Sunday, October 30, 2005

What a great Halloween story

It's sad to read that most of Kathryn Tucker Windham's books about Southern ghosts -- perhaps Alabama's best known folktales and definitely entertaining windows into the region's history -- are out of print today.

But Windham, 87, is still busy telling stories, this time about some of her quirky family members. She's also learned over the years how to deal with the detractors eager to condemn her to hell for "promoting a devilish belief in the supernatural": "If I'm going to hell ... it won't be for telling ghost stories; I have far greater shortcomings than that."

Oddly enough, the queen of Southern ghost stories has never actually seen a ghost. Jeffrey, the ghost who's occupied her Selma house for almost 40 years, still makes noises in her hallway from time to time, she says, but he's been a little less active lately.