Wife, mother, and loving grandmother, Winnie was the third youngest of eleven children of cotton sharecroppers Thomas and Elsie Mae Austin Doss. Born near Brownfield, Texas during the Great Depression, Winnie overcame many hardships, including losing her mother to a childbirth-related death in 1935.
Winnie spent the next several years attending school in Brownfield Texas, and working the cotton fields with her father, brothers, and sisters. A 1949 graduate of Brownfield High School, Winnie attended Waylon Baptist University in Plainview, and then went to work at the Brownfield Courthouse. In the mid-1950’s, Winnie relocated to Dallas Texas, and worked for the Dallas County Tax Office. She met her future husband, Ivan Kinder, on a blind date in 1959. It was true love, and Ivan and Winnie were married just a few months later. They settled down to raise a family in Arlington Texas for the next few decades. Winnie and Ivan had two children, Bryan - born in 1960, and Ralph - born in 1963.
Winnie and Ivan had an entrepreneurial spirit, and successfully ventured into mobile ice cream sales, aviation, and a real estate brokerage business. A tireless spirit, Winnie was the workhorse and the backbone of all of these ventures. She often balanced paperwork, equipment repairs, and stock replenishment with the raising of two adventurous boys. In her later years, Winnie thoroughly enjoyed a seven-year career with The Corp of Engineers in Fort Worth Texas.
Winnie also enjoyed giving back to the community, and spent several years as a volunteer manager for the St. Alban’s Parish Bookstore in Arlington Texas. For nearly a decade, she volunteered at Hannah’s House, a supervision center offering non-custodial visitation for parents through the Court system.
Winnie’s greatest love was children, especially her four grandchildren, and she made them her number one priority. She lived for their visits, phone calls, or the opportunity to go exploring with them at one of the many museums, zoo’s or parks in the DFW area. Winnie was preceded in death by her husband in 1989. She is survived by her son Bryan and his wife Kimberly, son Ralph and his wife Veronique, and four grandchildren: Cali, Ashlee, Tyler, and Cole.
A memorial service will be held at Moore Funeral Home, 1219 N. Davis Drive, Arlington, Texas 76012, at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 1, 2018 with a committal service to follow at Moore Memorial Gardens.
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