When the precious silver cord of Winford Lee’s earthly life was broken, a very effective instructor of the Word departed from our midst. Though in his later years he relinquished his teaching duties on the program to fellow brethren, he still continued to teach all the way to the end by his cheery disposition and consistent example of faithfulness to Jesus his Savior. No one here below knows for sure the total number of lessons he taught, nor the sum of all souls who sat under his instruction, but those of us who did will fondly remember, and benefit from, the many lessons he imparted during his labors here in the Vineyard of the Lord.
Thanks to the good brethren at Claycomo, MO, I was privileged to grow up on a fairly regular diet of Brother Winford. When he held meetings at our congregation, Mom and Dad would nearly always make it a point to have him over for an evening meal. Come suppertime, we would watch his trusty Ford roll down our street, slow down, and then pull up into the driveway. After being welcomed in the front door, he would often ask in his polite way if he might make a call to Reba, and I can still see him heading for the old blue rotary-dial phone hanging on the wall so he could see how things were going on the home front. Conversation with Winford before and during supper was always interesting and encouraging, seasoned with a healthy dose of his sense of humor. For those who know my younger brother, you can easily imagine the back-and-forth in the Woody home with Winford and Glen around the same dinner table!
Winford’s lessons from the pulpit were effective and memorable; to this day it is amazing how many different things come to mind that were planted during one of his edifying sermons or classes. As John Lee said in his eulogy, Winford liked to collect words! Once he had one he would analyze it from every angle, mining the depths of its meaning before passing the gem on to his students. Words, as he liked to say, were the “vehicles on which thoughts are carried.”
There are many brethren in different congregations who are indebted to Winford’s help through church or personal problems. His wisdom and counsel helped at the time of the crises, and continue to provide guidance to this day.
He was a capable writer of truth, picking up his pen to put edifying thoughts down on paper for various publications, including over 50 articles for The Gospel Message.
Brother Winford admired economy of effort, and was a strong believer in getting things done on time, including giving a sermon. “Brevity is the sole of wit” was a favorite quotation from Shakespeare that he would use to reinforce his point about getting done on time.
As I type this eulogy on the computer, the spell-checker will not recognize Winford’s name, and even many of us didn’t always know what his name was for sure. As his son John said at the funeral, Winford spent his whole life spelling his name (thus his son was simply named ‘John’). Was the preacher’s name Winfred? Winnifred? Or was it Wilford? I suspect that it matters very little to the man with the ‘winning’ attitude who usually drove one of Henry Ford’s products, for he believed in the promise of Jesus for those who overcome as recorded in
Revelation 2:17: “ (I)…will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”Our heartfelt thanks also goes out to Reba for being the virtuous woman behind the man who blessed so many of us. Without her dedication and support, we know that Winford would have been unable to do the work of an evangelist.