Memphis

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Memphis Memories and a Patriot’s Daughter

I’m a lifelong learner. I love digging through history to find people who inspire me…hearing about new dinosaur fossils being discovered around the world…reading poems, short stories, and novels that make me think and draw me into the story so deeply that I feel part of the author’s created world.

While reading some notes about some of the people buried in a historic cemetery in my area, I recently learned something about my own hometown. I did not know that Dorothea Spotswood “Dolly” Henry Winston, the daughter of Patrick and Dorothea Henry once lived in Memphis. She’s buried in Elmwood Cemetery, so you can visit her grave if you visit. She was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, on August 2, 1778, and died in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 75 on June 17, 1854, at the home of her daughter.

Though her father’s words are easy to find, I couldn’t find much information about her life outside of Virginia, but I decided to write a short story (historical fiction) that introduces you to a little bit of her story.

Liberty and Lunch

By Chris Pepple ©2026

I gathered my belongings and stepped onto the deck of the steamboat. The awe-inspiring monster I traveled on offered me a quick way to reach my daughter and her husband in Memphis as it billowed smoke as if a dragon deciding whether it would protect or devour me along the journey. As I felt the churning of the waves of the Mighty Mississippi lapping at the edge of the boat, I prayed daily to myself: Dear Lord, keep the fires of this dragon contained in its own boilers. Help us avoid the fires that have taken the lives of other travelers.

Here I was, a woman in my 70s, on a new adventure that I had not seen coming. I had eaten my breakfast this morning on this vessel, trying not to think about what was ahead. Now, as I stared at the bluffs and the shoreline I would soon reach, I closed my eyes and thought back to the place I thought I would spend my final days—Red Hill, Virginia. I could picture our modest main house with my father proudly walking in to greet his family. I could smell the flowers blooming, hear my siblings laughing, and feel the wind blowing through the Osage orange tree.

I opened my eyes and saw the reality of the cobblestones and mud on the banks before me. I could hear the workers preparing for us to disembark. So many were excited to be landing in this growing city, but I saw nothing before me that felt comforting.

“Are you Dolly?” I heard a voice behind me calling out.

“Excuse me?” Dolly? Who knows me here to call me by that name? I surely have no friend here yet.

“Sorry, Ma’am. Are you Mrs. Dorothea Henry Winston?”

“Yes,” I replied, feeling tired and wanting to find someone familiar.

“Your daughter left me instructions to assist you off the boat and up the hill to her husband’s waiting wagon.”

I nodded. Elvira and James had been so kind to me over the past few years. After George died twenty-one years ago, I felt a bit lost. Grief over his death and the loss of four of our children through the years seemed to be a constant companion. Now—well, another change loomed before me. I accepted the help off the steamboat, not wanting to slip on the cobblestones or fall off the planks and into the mud that seemed to prey on this landing as if one more layer would swallow it forever. Memphis—my new home with my daughter and her family.

“Dolly, you made it!” my son-in-law called out, being one who could call me Dolly. “I hope your trip went well.”

“So good to see you, James,” I replied as he reached for my bags. “I’ll hold on to this one. It has a few special items in it.” I held that all the way to the home Elvira and James had been preparing for us to live in. They arrived months earlier to have things ready. I entered the house and could feel the care they had both put into it, hoping it would begin to feel like home to me. I had been away from Virginia for years—moving with them to Alabama after George died—but had always hoped to make my way back there for my final days. This house would have to do instead.

“Mother, let’s invite a few ladies over for lunch,” Elvira said two weeks into my stay at our new house. “We could have some chicken or rabbit with biscuits and some okra or greens.”

“It’s time I became a bit more social, I suppose. If we do that, I’d like to use something special at the table. Wait while I get it.” I went to my room and pulled out the only unpacked bag I had left. I pulled out two cloths with items wrapped in them. I smiled as I held them in my hands.

I went back out to our dining table and placed the cloths before Elvira. “These should be with you now,” I said as I unwrapped the largest cloth. Elvira gasped as she saw the items before her—eight sterling silver shell-patterned pistol handled knives, with eight matching three-pronged forks, and eight spoons.

“Mother, where did you get these?” she asked as she ran her fingers over the knife handles, admiring the craftsmanship.

“I’ve had these for years. Brought them from Red Hill when I left. I just never unpacked them. They were part of a wedding gift from my mother and father, handed down from our family,” I answered, once again closing my eyes and thinking of my parents and our homes in Virginia.

“What’s in the other cloth?”

“A tea cup,” I said as I pulled out a small china cup with its high handle and pink flowers with shamrock green leaves. “This is still mine for now. It reminds me of both the fragility and the beauty in life.” I paused before adding, “I think I’ll rinse this and make myself some tea now.”

Three days later, I admired the silverware as we sat around the table with women of various ages who were dear to Elvira and would become dear to me—mothers and daughters facing this growing port city together.

“I feel like I’m sitting with royalty,” Mrs. Thompson said, looking in my direction. “Tell us more about your family. I’ve read about your father a bit.”

“Well, I certainly don’t feel like royalty. Our lives are all of equal importance. Our joys and sorrows are equally felt and shared.”

“But you’re the daughter of Patrick Henry. That name’s known through all of the states—a founding father and a Virginia governor.”

“To me he was simply ‘Father.’ My mother and my father taught me how to read and how to listen, how to find my true self and how to respect the lives of others. I grew up in a house full of love and full of a desire to learn. I suppose his life is that of an American patriot who will be talked about when people pen the history of our nation, but to me he’ll be remembered for all of our long walks and our evening talks.”

“You’re lucky to have been educated and given so many opportunities in life,” a young woman who was sitting near Elvira said. “I’ve been farming for so long that I can’t even remember the last time I walked into a school room or held a book in my hand. Tell me more about what’s happening in other parts of the country and the political discussions I hear when I’m at the general store.”

“I can do more than tell you,” I said as I pardoned myself from the table and went into my room. I came back with three books and some letters tied together with a ribbon. “Here are some of my father’s letters I kept that talk about all that he worked for in this nation—the Bill of Rights he wanted to ensure we all had. I also have a few books that might interest you. The letters can be read here, but you can borrow the books. I’m having even more shipped in soon.”

“Liberties and freedom—people are still arguing about that today. Who has which liberties and who is truly free,” Mrs. Thompson added. “I try to focus on more basic matters such as what our church families face and what food needs to be put on the table. Illness runs through this town so often. Focusing on freedom isn’t going to cure or feed any of us.”

The conversation continued about the importance of speaking out for the rights of all people in our growing nation while also working to feed our families and provide medical care for our communities.

The lunch turned into a weekly occurrence with new faces joining us each week. When the weather was nice, we picnicked out back. With the cold or rain, we filled every chair in the house and filled our tables with food from each family.

During one lunch more than a year later, I looked at our group and said, “My father once wrote, ‘My earnest wish is that Christian charity, forbearance and love may unite all different persuasions as brethren.’ I truly wish that as well. You have made me feel at home here, though I longed to be back in my family home in Virginia. You gave me a purpose and a hope through these lunches—that my father’s wish for all people to be respected in this nation will still be something others are willing to stand for today.”

Maybe Dorothea Spotswood “Dolly” Henry Winston started the Memphis tradition of gathering for book club discussions and creating space for diverse beliefs to share a meal and remember what her father hoped for.

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Podcast Episode: Dorothy Day House

If you are following my podcast on iTunes or SoundCloud (Look to See Me by Chris Pepple), you can find some of the transcripts of my episodes here.

Dorothy Day House Memphis

Hi, Listeners! I hope you are all having a wonderful week this week. Welcome back to Look to See Me, a podcast that invites you to look closer at the lives of people around you and to take time to hear their stories. I’m Chris Pepple and today I’m going to talk about some people who are changing the lives of homeless families—specifically I’m going to talk about the Dorothy Day House of Hospitality in Memphis.

First, however, I’m going to give you a short history of the woman the organization is named for. Dorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist, and Catholic convert. She was born in New York in 1897 and was the 3rdchild to Grace and John Day. Her father was a sportswriter and moved his family to San Francisco in 1904 when he took a job with a newspaper there. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 destroyed the paper’s facilities there, and he lost his job, but out of that tragedy, Dorothy saw acts of kindness by her mother and their neighbors who all stepped up to help others during this crisis in their city. Those self-sacrificing acts planted the seeds in Dorothy Day’s mind that would later lead her to help others in times of need.

Her passion for bringing change to what seemed like desperate situations led her to become part of a circle of social radicals and literary types like Eugene O’Neill during World War I. Eventually she faced jail time for her actions in 1917 when she and a group of suffragettes were demonstrating at the White House in favor of giving women voting rights.

Though Day’s parents were not deeply religiously, they did have some ties to Christianity. It’s said, though, that Day rejected religion because she did not see people who worshipped regularly doing anything to serve the people in need. Day eventually embraced the Catholic faith and admired the Catholic church for being “the Church of the poor.”  In 1926, Day gave birth to her daughter Tamar and faced life as a single mother as she worked as a freelance journalist. Her decision to have her daughter baptized and embrace the Catholic faith led to the end of her common law marriage and the loss of many of her radical friends.

In 1932, when she was covering the Hunger March in Washington, D.C., she prayed that some way would open up for her to serve the poor and unemployed. The next day she met Peter Maurin. They worked together to start the “Catholic Worker” newspaper which spawned a movement of houses of hospitality and farming communes that has since been replicated throughout the nation and in other countries.

You can read more about her life in a book by her granddaughter Kate Hennessy titled Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty. Her life story is fascinating, and I’m just giving you a glimpse of all of the work she did for others during her lifetime. But know that she spent her entire life trying to make a difference in this world—trying to help bring hope to others.

That’s what the Dorothy Day House in Memphis does today. The mission of the Dorothy Day House is to keep homeless families together as they are struggling to try to get back on their feet and regain some hope financially.

We know that people can become homeless for many reasons: lost jobs or under-employment, overwhelming medical bills or other unplanned for expenses, or generational poverty. Being homeless is traumatic for everyone involved. Adding to the stress of the situation, however, is the design of many typical shelters. When families are trying to get out of the heat or cold and find a safe place to rest, they often have to separate. Many shelters only allow one gender to be housed on site, so fathers have to leave daughters and wives; mothers have to leave sons and husbands. This separation means that they aren’t together to try to work through possible solutions to their financial challenges.

The Dorothy Day house steps in whenever possible and offers a safe place for families to live together so they can stay strong as a family unit and support each other as they work to move forward and overcome the obstacles hindering them because of their poverty.

So, what does this living situation look like? The parents and children now have a home-like atmosphere—they have a sense of security—and in this place, they all have responsibilities such as helping to clean the house and prepare meals. The organization has two houses, serving three families in each house.

Their second house opened in May 2018 and is named in memory of Loretta Garland, a woman who lived in the Dorothy Day House with her teenage son. They became homeless because the factory Loretta worked in for 20 years closed with no warning. While at the house, Loretta got a new job at FedEx and was just about to move out when she died suddenly of a stroke on April 15, 2013.

The families at the Dorothy Day House are very diverse. The organization serves families of different sizes, ages, religions, and ethnicities. As I mentioned earlier, many things can cause sudden homelessness: a house fire, the death or sudden absence of the main wage earner, the expense of medical bills, a car accident or other unexpected circumstances.

Today, almost half of American families live paycheck to paycheck. Any setback can cause serious financial challenges with long-term effects. We also have to understand the effects of generational poverty. Many parents don’t have the emotional, mental or physical tools needed to make changes for their families and pull themselves out of poverty. Dorothy Day understood this in her time. Many people don’t have support systems in place to help move them out of a crisis situation and into a stable living situation. Dorothy Day reminded us that we were called to love others. She said, though, that we had to get over our fear of others in order to get close enough to love them.

The Dorothy Day House of Hospitality is loving families and bringing them hope. The organization is funded by private donations from individuals. Donors give annually, as needed for projects, or on a monthly-basis. Each gift, of any amount, is important to the sustainability of the ministry. The Dorothy Day House depends entirely on monetary and in-kind donations from private donors and charitable organizations. We receive no federal, state, or local assistance.

Their website—dorothydaymemphis.org—lists the specific needs they have at any particular time. Sometimes they need diapers if they are serving families with infants; sometimes they need shoes of a specific size or maybe clothes or furniture. Their Facebook page also keeps donors updated on specific needs. And of course, cash is always appreciated.

When I was in interim children’s director at a local church, I was filling in over a summer and decided to use some of our monetary donations from our VBS program to support the home. I met Sister Maureen Griner who is the Executive Director and part of their ministry team to families. I was able to hear more of the stories of the hope that this organization brings to our community. It’s truly an inspiring organization with volunteers who mentor the kids and cook meals and step in to help deep clean at times.

Here are a few of the ways the Dorothy Day house staff, volunteers and support agencies in the community serve the families in their care—they provide:

  • Food, clothing, and shelter
  • Educational resources and guidance
  • Parenting skills
  • Employment counseling
  • Prospective job contacts
  • Transportation
  • Referrals for child care
  • Financial and budgeting advice
  • Counseling and case management services
  • Advocacy and mentoring
  • Access to sources of permanent housing
  • New personal relationships which provide a system of healthy support and encouragement for the future.

The first family moved into the Dorothy Day house is 2006. This ministry is still expanding.

Here’s your challenge for the week: look around your community and find organizations that have a similar mission. See if you can locate groups working to keep homeless family members together. Help get their story out in your community—share their social media posts or show up at events that are fundraisers for that organization.

Fighting homelessness takes a team effort, but we can help bring hope and change to families trying to overcome poverty. A safe home makes a difference.

Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode of my Look to See Me podcast and will return for the next episode.

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Podcast Episode: The Jasmine Center

If you are following my podcast on iTunes or SoundCloud (Look to See Me by Chris Pepple), you can find some of the transcripts of my episodes here.

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Hi, Listeners! I hope you are all having a wonderful week this week. Welcome back to Look to See Me, a podcast that invites you to look closer at the lives of people around you and to take time to hear their stories. I’m Chris Pepple and today I’m going to talk about something a little different. In past episodes, I have talked about community groups and nonprofit groups that have been in existence for several years. I could give you a little history on the organization and a glimpse of their programs.

A few weeks ago, though, I ran into a woman and overheard her conversation about her plans for a new nonprofit organization. Now, remember that I’m a writer…being a writer means I’m always listening when I’m out in public. It’s how I learn new things about my community, about people around me, about our world.  I stop listening if I realize that people are talking about something extremely personal, but if I’m around people just chatting about life or work or interests, I love to look busy and keep listening.

In this instance, I decided to confess to the woman that I was eavesdropping. I introduced myself and gave her my contact information. I told her I would love to hear more about the project she was working on. I’m glad she was willing to check out my website and see that I wasn’t crazy. And she was willing to answer questions for me.

I wanted to know more about how an organization that aims to serve our community gets a start—how do you tackle large societal issues such as homelessness, poverty, and abuse when you are starting with just a vision? Here’s what I learned from a woman named Timishia Ortiz who is the founder and CEO of The Jasmine Center in Memphis, Tennessee. And please forgive me if my “Southernness” is mispronouncing her beautiful name.

Ortiz was graciously open to sharing her life story, so we can glimpse her background and see the perspective she is coming from when she had the vision to start The Jasmine Center. She was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a father who was a radiologist and a mother who was a stay-at-home parent. When she lost her dad at age seven to heart disease, her mother relocated the family to Memphis.

Ortiz’s life changed when she had to face the pain of domestic abuse in her own marriage. She faced a very rocky divorce while living in Nashville. Now many of you may not understand how challenging it can be for mothers to maneuver though Tennessee’s court system. The process takes an enormous emotional and financial toll on the people going through the courts. Nothing is easy even when you are the victim. In Tennessee, court costs and lawyer fees add up quickly. I can tell you that from personal experience. As so often happens, Ortiz and her children were homeless for a time. When she first left in order to be safe, she and her children stayed in a hotel for a few days. But she was a stay-at-home mother without income to sustain a long stay in a hotel.

When Ortiz tried to reach out to an agency for temporary government assistance, the woman assisting her with the paperwork asked for an address. When Ortiz gave a hotel address, the woman then declared that Ortiz and her children were homeless. That was a reality she had trouble naming or accepting. She used what little funds she had left to get to Memphis where her mother and brother lived. Unfortunately, neither had the resources to help her financially. Actually, her mother was being evicted from the house she was staying in because she was unable to keep up the rental payments. So, Ortiz felt truly homeless.

Here’s a quote from Ortiz…some information that she shared with me in her own words: “In the midst of these troubles, I was rushed to the hospital to give birth to my second child. God set up a miraculous breakthrough for us. We discovered that my deceased dad’s sister relocated (to Memphis) from Atlanta, Georgia. When she heard our dire circumstances, she immediately helped us in getting a place. While going through those turbulent times, I ran into other moms who had been homeless over an extended period of time. After their stay in shelters of 30-90 days, these families still had no place to go, sometimes had no skills to be productive, no resources to help their children…these moms were left with more hopelessness, no support, and a chance to be next on the waiting list for another homeless program. This gave me the drive and determination to PUSH until something new was birthed.”

Ortiz used her challenges in life to find new strength and a strong faith. She used that strength and faith not just to help herself and her kids, but to also reach out and help others. Here’s what she has to say about The Jasmine Center:

“The Jasmine Center is a social service industry with a strategic goal of reducing homelessness, crime, poor education, and unemployment in the city of Memphis. Estimations of poverty take into account the average household income, home value, the percent below the federally recognized poverty line and the overall unemployment rate. For all it’s apparent conveniences and perks, city living has never been easy or inexpensive. TJC wants to break the cycle of poverty so prevalent in single households that are caught up in the cycle of unemployment, domestic violence, crime, and incarceration by endeavoring to equip and empower individuals to live life with God, and to help them make the changes necessary to live an abundant and purposeful life. It is our desire to connect the families including any absent fathers with valuable resources, one-on-one mentoring through local church leadership, and counseling services. Our program is designed to develop relationships with the families in order to facilitate a transition from homelessness to a safe stable place to live.”

Now in her wisdom, Ortiz knew she couldn’t do this alone. She found a mentor named Mark Yates, president and CEO of Life Enhancement Services.  She also pulled together an advisory board. Here’s what she said about that process: “I began to think of leaders that enjoyed helping others. The more I talked about my story and my vision for the Center the more like-minded people I found. They would always say to me, ‘Wow, I wish I could help.’ There was my open door for recruitment. I started out with two medical physicians on my Board of Directors then it expanded from there.”

She also applied to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in May 2018. She admits that she wishes she had known beforehand how extensive this process was. Ideally, she now realizes she should have applied for that designation earlier in the process. But we all have things to learn when we are being courageous enough to follow a vision. And when we are strong enough to admit what we didn’t know, we can help educate others following in our footsteps.

So what’s next for The Jasmine Center? The team has built a website (thejasminecenter.com) and is looking for an actual location to offer housing for those in need.

“I am currently in the process of obtaining a place,” said Ortiz, “with the gracious help of realtor Timothy Smith with Jasco Realty and Mary Sharp of 32 years with Remax. They’ve been working expeditiously with finding affordable apartment style units for our expected families in need. I project to have a secure place before the end of 2018.”

The Jasmine Center isn’t sitting by idly while waiting for the housing. The team members are currently working to make connections within the community so they can work together with existing agencies to tackle the problems of abuse, poverty, and homelessness. They are currently involved in a collaborative effort with The Family Safety Center. They decided to make survivor kits for their victims of domestic violence.

What has been her biggest challenge in founding The Jasmine Center?

“My biggest challenge,” she admits, “was not allowing fear to stop me and coming up with the money to get it started. The next biggest challenge was preparing a feasible budget.”

In this podcast, I introduce you to a lot of nonprofit organizations working to make changes in their communities. Some of you ask how a person decides if they should share resources in support of these groups? Well, I suggest just being wise. Look at their websites and talk to their board members. Do your research as you would with any investment—and donating time or money to a nonprofit group is an investment in your community—in our world.

I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for The Jasmine Center. I hope you follow their story. I admire the determination of Timishia Ortiz and respect her desire to make a difference in the lives of others. I appreciate her willingness and courage to honestly share her story.

Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode of my Look to See Me podcast and will return for the next episode.