Winkie Louise
Miss Firebird - Dixie 500
August 1968, Atlanta, GA |
Hello.
My name is "Wink" Kramer, but during the late
'60's, I worked as Miss Firebird for Pure Oil Co. before
they were bought out by Union Oil of California, and was
known as "Winkie Louise". (NOT TO BE
CONFUSED WITH LINDA VAUGHN. I REPLACED HER.)
I worked
an average of 28 major races each year for Pure,
beginning at the Daytona 500 in Feb. Those years
were so much fun, but more than that, over four years, I
became close to a number of the wonderful drivers and
some of their families. It was an important time in
my life. I treasured the photos that were taken in
Victory Lane, and also many, many candid shots given
to me by fans and photographers outside of Victory Lane. However,
most of the photographs were IN Victory Lane with people
like Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Lee Roy Yarbrough,
Buddy Baker, A.J. Foyt, Bobby Allison, David Pearson,
Junior Johnson, always kind...you know, all the Greats. |
I
was a southern girl, and felt pretty much at home with most
of the drivers and their wives. I recall one big race when
everyone made a big deal out of Richard Petty's finally buying his
wife a new washer and dryer set! Can you imagine that today?!
I
knew that someday I would want those photo images for my
children. I carefully put them into a large models'
portfolio and put them away. As much as I treasured them, I
knew that one day my children would want to see them. (My
children were always busy with sports when they were in high
school, and college, and since I quit the races to marry Jerry
Kramer, 11 years pro-football player under Coach Lombardi, our
home was already full of trophies and photos...well deserved, too,
I might add.)
Now
comes the new and bigger NASCAR and cable racing stations.
My youngest son, Jordan, (now trying for a spot with the Tennessee
Titans) was watching a cable racing station at college and phoned
me to say that he had seen me with different drivers in Victory
Lane on a cable racing station. He asked to see my
photographs. On Thanksgiving break, I got out my portfolio and
showed all three of my children my days before I was just
"MOM, where are my clean socks?" They all wanted copies
of most of the photographs and some of the newspaper clippings.
(My long-winded way of getting to my point. Sorry.)
So,
I put the portfolio in the trunk of my car where they would be
handy when I found a place that would copy them
"in-house" since I worried that they might be lost
if sent somewhere to be copied. About two weeks later, while
we were away for spring break, our house was burglarized.
When the burglars found a spare set of keys to my car, they loaded
it with everything they could steal and hauled it away with their
own car also filled. They went somewhere, dumped what they
stole, and got rid of everything that was in the trunk of my
car.... including my wonderful pictures. All the electronic
things didn't bother me, but I am still heartsick about losing my
photographs, and even a charm bracelet which had a charm on it
given to me by Richard Petty. I didn't realize it
was gone until Jordan said that he saw a video clip on the racing
channel and I was wearing that charm bracelet.
 I
have searched, tried to contact the burglars...three are in
prison.. druggies, tried to appeal to them to tell me where they
took the things from my car trunk, but can't get any information.
I am afraid that after all this time, the photos probably went
into a garbage dump somewhere. One of the burglars...a young
man I had substitute taught in high school, told me of a shed
where I could find them. This was immediately after his
sentencing. The police detective went there, but told me
that nothing was in the shed, and it was so dusty that they could
see that nobody had been there for at least months.
It
is hard to give up on this because I know that there are people
out there...racing fans (and drivers themselves) from that era
whom I know would have photographs if I only knew how to reach
them. I am trying especially to contact people who might have
copies of Victory Lane during those years...I think 1966 thru
1970. I do not have any idea who might have copies of
"the old days" though everybody who lived during that
era certainly knows who was winning! I had great
copies of photos and treasured them. Now, it feels like
there is a huge gap in my life that I need to continue to fill.
If I were to die tomorrow, I would say that I have had an
extraordinarily wonderful life. I just would enjoy sharing THOSE
days and THOSE PEOPLE with the kids.
Could you
point me in a direction or give me any advice about where I could
write to anyone who might have photos of those years?
So far, website archives haven't been helpful. The other
night, I was so happy to find the attached photo, which was in one
of my cookbooks! I just sat down and bawled until I felt
better! Thought I might try again.
I think it is
wonderful that the popularity of racing has increased...all
the new, young drivers, etc. Glad to see it. But,
there was something different, more personal about that group of
guys in stock car racing in those days, much like what has
happened to pro-football since Jerry played. (He retired from
football after the l968 season...they had just won their second
Super Bowl.) It seems like a whole new ball game to me,
and I feel like you can't really appreciate where you are until
you recognize where you have been.
~Wink Kramer
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