Billy Winn was born in 1938 in Columbus, where he would spend most of his life. He graduated Columbus High, where he lettered in football, baseball and basketball. He went on to attend Emory University and Georgia State University, then Georgia State College.
He would leave the South in the 1960s for Alaska, where he worked as a park ranger. While there, he convinced Elinor Brandt to join him not only in Alaska but in marriage. There, they would have their daughters, Vickie and Tscharner — the apples of Billy’s eye.
After figuring out Alaska was no place to raise two girls, the Winns returned to the South, where Billy, with no newspaper experience, was hired by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I couldn’t even type,” Billy once said.
Billy covered several areas for the AJC, working under the venerable editor Ralph McGill and covering the civil rights movement from Atlanta. Before returning to Columbus, he served as editor of Atlanta Magazine.
In 1986, he came home to Columbus and was hired on as a senior writer at the Ledger-Enquirer and would ultimately serve as editorial page editor, where he won numerous awards for editorials and his columns. Almost every day, his column would appear at the top of the editorial page, each beginning, “Good morning.” Like his mentor McGill, his columns came to be part of Columbus readers’ daily routine.
His voice in the community is still missed.
After retiring in 2000, Billy and “Punt,” as his wife Elinor was called, could relax in their Victorian shotgun house on the riverside Promenade, and travel, often to Atlanta to see their daughters and their growing families. They enjoyed the outdoors, often taking family trips to the beach or the mountains.
Billy always enjoyed the outdoors, hiking, camping and fly fishing. In his 60s, he and two friends hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, camped and hiked back out. He often said his knees never forgave him.
He loved the water, especially the Chattahoochee River that ran in front of his Front Avenue home. For years, he owned and nursed a vintage 1949 Chris-Craft salon cruiser and its temperamental old Ford flat-head six. Old-timers say you can still hear him cursing that engine some nights at the marina.
But he took his boat — named the “Beyond Repair” — all the way down to the Gulf once.
“And back,” he would say. “That was the remarkable part.”
Billy was a natural-born story teller. That helped him in his newspaper career, of course, but he really shined when spinning a yarn. Sitting by a campfire, at a dinner table or on the porch, he could tell a story with the best of them.
Many were true.
When he wasn’t telling stories on that porch, you’d find him playing one of his guitars there.
He had more than a few guitars (and Punt would gladly tell you exactly how many).
Billy loved to cook and then to eat. He was especially fond of cajun and creole dishes, but the specialty of the Winn house was Country Captain, a Columbus staple.
His love of eating and cooking was likely honed during time in New Orleans, a city he loved deeply, but called, “a good place to live if your goal is to be a 400-pound alcoholic.”
In 2016, Elinor died. Billy downsized his footprint, sold their old house on the Promenade and took an apartment. But later, he reconnected with Kay (Rawls) Illges, another high school sweetheart, also widowed. Old sparks rekindled and they married in 2018. They spent the rest of his life happily together, cooking and eating, traveling and visiting and hosting their blended family.
Billy Winn lived a long life that was full of both living and love. He particularly loved his children, grandchildren and their children, and especially the two loves of his life, Punt and Kay.
In addition to Kay, he is survived by his daughters Tscharner Dickerson, Victoria Bracewell (Bob), both of Atlanta; grandchildren Anna Bracewell, Mary Dickerson, Will Bracewell (Lindsey), Rebecca Benefield (Blake) and Sarah Dickerson; and great-grandchildren Thomas Bracewell and Claudia Benefield.
In addition, he is survived by Kay’s children Kay and Tom Rawlings of Atlanta and Amanda and Bill VanCleve of Asheville, NC.; and grandchildren Will, Charlie and Bram Rawlings; Meg, James and Betsy VanCleve.
A celebration of his life will be 2 p.m. Tuesday March 24 at the chapel at Striffler-Hamby, 4071 Macon Road. The Rev. Allison Owen will officiate. A reception will follow in the Mill Room.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the charity of your choice.
