Dorothy Winkfield

My name is Dorothy Winkfield. I'm 71 years old and I'm a member of Peace Baptist Church, which is in Avondale.

This picture is Peace Baptist Church on Oliver Street. We used to live next door. My family used to live next door to Peace Baptist. So that's that's our church then at the time. And of course, we all had on our black and white, the singers, and we had our ministers up there. And I was a little girl at the time, but when I heard music and I smelled that fried chicken that they were making for the Sunday, you know, they used to sell them. And I loved going over there. And I loved as a child sitting there listening to the music of the choir in rehearsal.

My natural family was my church family. And we would come together and every Sunday we would have dinner and then go over my mom's house and have dinner. Just like the movie where everybody comes together and we fellowshipped. As far as a regular time as well as with at church. So it was our family was at church, the same people. But we had a wonderful time as a social thing as well.

It makes me remember when I was little and I used to say, ‘That church next door is so loud!’ But now I remember I'm sitting there and I learned all the songs of the old senior choir sitting out there in the backyard listening to them. And it permeated me to the point where I fell in love with the hymns. And that's my favorite now. But a lot of people don't know about hymns, but I love the old hymns. They have the richness of words to help people.

Click below to hear Dorothy share the story of this photograph and the Avondale community: