Winters Celebrate 74 Years of Marriage

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Nina Carolyn Wood was a Junior at Keokuk High School when she was in a girl’s sextet singing at Canton High School. After singing she was meeting other students and met Franklin (Bud) Winters, Bud was a Senior in high school.

They were engaged in 1945 while Nina was a Senior in high school, at Keokuk, Iowa. Bud joined the Coast Guard thinking he would be stationed in Keokuk. His training was held in Alameta, California, but his choices for deployment were Alaska or Hawaii. He chose Hawaii. Nina flew to Hawaii and they were married January 20, 1947. While in Hawaii, Bud’s ship was used to deliver supplies to the other Hawaiian Islands. Later that spring the farmers in Missouri were experiencing heavy floods so Bud was allowed to come home to help on his family farm at Gregory Landing. He then went back to California, but in the meantime his ship had been de-commissioned so he was honorably discharged from the service. His parents and Nina picked him up in California and traveled to the state of Washington and then back to the family farm in Gregory Landing.

His parents left after a few months and moved out west to Port Angeles, Washington where they built the Chinook Motel, which was the first Best Western in Port Angeles.

Nina and Bud had seven children while living in Gregory Landing: Terry, Debbie, Denise, Chad, Gina, Joni, and Daan. They farmed and raised livestock. They all loved the water and had a cabin and boat in Gregory where all seven children learned to ski.

They took their children on vacation every year. Several were trips out to the state of Washington to visit Bud’s sisters and parents. They also took two weeks every summer to go to the Lake of the Ozarks for boating and skiing. The last big family trip was in 1965. The Winters family travled west in a motor home where they visited the Red Wood Forest, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, waterfalls, and lakes, and went clam digging along the ocean.

They moved to the hill south of Wayland in 1961 and purchased the IGA supermarket in Canton, while still farming. They were also the owners/operators of the Midway gas station and multiple fireworks stands. They then purchased the Rutherford house in Revere, Missouri and remodeled it to open Country Heritage Antiques. A few years later they built a new building below their home on the hill to expand their antique business. In 1982, they opened Missouri Territory in Wayland. Two years later they opened up Missouri Territory in Hannibal, along with the Cliffside Mansion Bed and Breakfast.

Nina and Bud moved to Wayland upon retirement, and then moved to their present home at Trump Ridge. They have 33 grandchildren, and 76 great grandchildren.