Page SA
MS. WINNIE
From Page 5A
tenance Service, before
she returned to North Car-
olina. For about 13 years,
she was the editor of “New
Dawn”, a monthly publica-
tion of the Antioch Mission-
ary Baptist Church that was
sent out to the incarcerated
and shut-ins all over the
U.S. Rey. James Robinson
is pastor of Antioch Mis-
sionary.
Reg Alexander, of Regal
Ventures, remembers when
Ms. Winnie would stop by
his office at Alexander Park
on E. Gold Street to get
some colored paper for her
“New Dawn” booklets.
Several times, when she
came, she would stop and
look at a painting he had on
the wall. It was an abstract
painting of the cross, cre-
ated by a friend of his.
“Sometimes she’d ask,
‘Can I go look at that pic-
ture?’” Alexander said.
“She would stare at it and
~ get a little misty-eyed each
time.”
She told him that she
their faith in different ways.
“She was always such a
sweet person,” he said.
Carolyn Robinson and
her cousin Dianne Mosely
(Ms. Winnie’s niece) re-
membered that she always
had a lot to say.
On January 9, 2009, this
woman of many words
shared a few that her daugh-
ter thought were odd. That
morning she called and
asked Carolyn and James to
meet her for breakfast.
“She said, ‘I’m not going
to be with you very
3 3
long...I’'m going home’,
Carolyn said.
Rev. Robinson tried to
remind her that no one
knows his or her time to go.
They parted company and
later that night around 11
p.m., after not hearing from
her, family members went
to check on her. She was
okay. ;
Hours later, at 4 a.m.,
‘she. was not okay. The
Robinsons received a phone
call from Lifeline who said
that they got a signal from
Ms. Winnie’s house.
They met the paramedics
The Kings Mountain Herald
the first one. Although it
had not taken her life, this
one had taken her ability to
speak.
After a trip to the hospi-
tal, the Robinsons brought
her to their home. She had
lost more than her speech.
There was little this once
very strong, independent
woman could now do for
herself. And Carolyn saw
how heavy this weighed on
her mother.
This strong woman had
survived colon cancer with-
out a recurrence. She trav-
eled all over the United
States of America meeting
new people, “rubbing
shoulders” with legends
such as Satchel Paige and
Jackie Robinson, while on
the arm of her equally leg-
endary husband, “Slow”
Robinson, = catcher for
Satchel Paige. :
“She was around a lot of
pretty important people in
the baseball business,” said
family friend Mary Neisler.
“She was the most elegant
woman I’ve known in a
long time.”
She loved people and
she loved meeting new peo-
all of the memorabilia Ms.
Winnie had in her room,
signed balls and bats and
other treasures from the
baseball world her husband
was in. Many of those his-
torical items have been on
borrow and on display at
the Kings Mountain Histor-
ical Museum.
“She was a lovely lady,”
said Mickey Crowell, head
curator and director of the
museum. “I always enjoyed
talking to her.”
“I met Winnie when we
used to bring some of the
kids in the neighborhood
out to speak to her husband
and he would tell them all
of his stories from base-
ball,” said Mayor Rick
Murphrey. “We always en-
joyed those stories.”
He remembered that Ms.
Winnie would always have
something special for them
to eat when they came, too.
“She was a character,”
said her niece Dianne
Mosely. She was the life of
the party — a gracious host
with a giving nature.
. “She was a beautiful per-
son, very outgoing, very
loving,” said granddaughter
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
THE LATE MR. AND MRS. FRAZIER “SLOW” ROBINSON
that her mother would do
anything for any one that
needed help.
“She was the glue of this
family that kept us all to-
gether,” she said.
“The superglue,” James
added v5
“She was just such a
good caring person, a good
Christian,” Murphrey said.
“I can’t say enough about
what a good person she
was. :
Funeral for Winnie
Robinson Sunday
KINGS MOUNTAIN -
Wynolia (Winnie) Hart
Griggs Robinson, 81,
passed away’ Wednesday,
Feb. 3, 2010, at Hospice.
A funeral will be con-
‘ducted by the Rev. James
Robinson at 3 p.m. Sunday,
Feb. 14, at Antioch Mis-
sionary Baptist Church. The
family will receive visitors
loved seeing the painting
and how people celebrate
there and discovered that
she'd had a stroke. It wasn’t
ple, Carolyn said.
Mrs. Neisler remembers
Shana Adams.
Carolyn ”
remembered her.
~ We're all going to miss
before the funeral at the
: church.
BRIDGES
From 5A
he recalled in an interview in the Herald
that he was a "jack of all trades" when the
station first opened at 1215 Cleveland Av-
enue. His wife, Doris, was bookkeeper and
he handled virtually everything else, in-
cluding sales. :
A native of Boiling Springs, Jonas was
attending Gardner-Webb College when the
chance came to work at WIS-TV in Spar-
tanburg on a part-time basis. Scheduling,
programming and running an air shift were
all in a day's work for young Bridges.
After high school classes in Boiling
Springs, he had worked part time at Shelby
- Station WOHS, then the only radio station
in Cleveland County, and also at a Forest
City station. His job was reporting play by
play for the Shelby major league farm club
games, the Western Carolina League.
Sports broadcasting was a natural for
Bridges. He worked seven days a week to
build the growing radio station in town. He
took pride in the community service pro-
grams he initiated on Tuesday night when
the station broadcast the first city council
meetings live from City Hall; ..
Jonas organized the original Kingsmen
Gospel Quartet of Asheville and always
featured gospel and country music on air, a
popular feature on WKMT. He was backed
up by an outstanding crew at the station and
for some time the station was on the air
from 6 a.m. till midnight. :
He brought a variety of programming
to the airwaves.
Jonas never attempted to compete with
large FM stations, focusing on making
WKMT 1220 on your dial a good local sta-
tion. The format of country, bluegrass and
gospel music stayed the same for many
years.
Slowing down was painful for Jonas
who in 1991 suffered cancer of his vocal
chords which silenced the air voice of a
man who had become a legend in the broad-
casting business for his play by play sports-
casts of not only local athletic events but
rodeo shows in the Southeast for a quarter
century. Successful surgery removed the
cancerous tumor and miraculously Bridges
could talk without the aid of a voice box but
not on the air. He continued to be King
Mountain's number one sports fan in the
stands but not at the microphone.
His organizational skills and behind the
scenes dedication contributed to the suc-
‘cessful business he continued to own and:
operate until he retired because of a heart
ailment and sold the station in 2004.
Jonas depended on friends like former
mayor Scott Neisler, Jimmy Littlejohn,
Perry Champion, and Jay Rhodes, to name
a few, to get sports news direct from the
games. on air. Neisler remembers Bridges
as "a great mentor" and a man who always
accepted new ideas in broadcasting. Neisler -
pitched his idea of simulcasting music to
accompany the fireworks displays on July
4th. Live local city council meetings were
also broadcast over WKMT to have city
government: accessible to citizens who
could not attend the regular meetings.
Now WYDT, the studio was moved
from Bessemer City Road to College Street
in Charlotte and the tower to Gastonia and
is currently an all-Spanish station.
Bridges served in the community as a
councilman from Ward V, was active in the
Kings Mountain Rotary Club, sang in the
First Baptist Church choir and was on the
KM Hall of Fame committee.
His love for Kings Mountain was evi-
dent. He promoted Bethware Progressive
‘Club for years with that group's sponsorship
of the Bethware Community Fair and the
Cleveland County Fairvand Crossroads
Music Park by broadcasting by live remote
7
«from those areas. +
Rob Bridges, Directol of Affiliate Sales
N
hh
bh
for Fox Cable Networks, Atlanta, recalled
that some of his Dad's favorite experiences
included promoting wrestling at the Na-
tional Guard Armory and booking Bolo
Brothers, Johnny Weaver and Haystack
Calhoun and announcing the Little League
World Series from Hershey, Pa., the Dixie
Youth World Series from Hattiesburg, Ms.
and twice the National Rodeo Finals and
also his hobbies of auctioneering and play-
ing musical instruments by ear. He was tak-
ing advanced banjo classes.
Bridges' daughter, Pam Bridges Looby
of Cornelius, said radio was her father's life
from his growing up days in Boiling
Springs.
Several days before his death his family
said Jonas spoke of his pride in Kings
Mountain. :
It took the community a long time to get
radio, different from most businesses, be-
* cause it is principally an entertainment
medium. But Jonas added informational
features to WKMT which his listeners ap-
preciated. :
Jonas Bridges gave the hometown flavor
to radio. Obviously, his voice was softer in
recent years but heart was this town and in
radio.
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