Les Winningham
Leslie Everett Winningham (July 3, 1940 – June 19, 2022) was an educator and state representative from Scott County. He served as principal at Scott High School for more than a decade, and represented the 38th District in the Tennessee House of Representatives for many years.
Biography
Born July 3, 1940 in Byrdstown, Tenn., Les Winningham was the son of Ward Porter Winningham and Mary Lou Mitchell, and was the fourth of seven children. His siblings included Dortha Elese Winningham, Glenna Winningham, Donald Earl Winningham, Roger Winningham, Ward Winningham and Doug Winningham.
The Winningham family’s roots run deep in Pickett County, Tenn. Les Winningham was a sixth-generation Pickett Countian, dating back to the days when it was part of Overton County. His fourth-great-grandfather, Adam Winningham (1781-1859) moved from North Carolina to Overton County in the early 19th century. He was a distant relative to George Winningham, the Pickett County sheriff killed by Scott Countian Jerome Boyatt at a Rock Creek logging camp in 1933. (Les Winningham’s second-great-grandfather and George Winningham’s father were brothers, making them first cousins, three times removed.)
Early Life
Winningham’s father, Ward, died at the age of 37 in 1952, when Les was only 11. He was raised by his mother. He attended Pickett County High School in Byrdstown and was a standout basketball player. Following his graduation from high school, he hitchhiked to Swannanoa, N.C. to attend Warren Wilson College. He graduated with an associates degree in forestry in 1961, lettering in both basketball and baseball. He later attended Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tenn., earning a bachelor’s in education in 1964 and a master’s in education in 1967.
Winningham married Peggy Jean Pickens (1946-2009), the daughter of Jonathan E. Pickens and Effie G. Wright of neighboring Clinton County, Ky., in 1967. They had five daughters: Carrie Jared (husband Scott), Allison Goolsby (husband Andrew), Shannon Railing (husband Michael), Jennifer Owens (husband Shon), and Sarah Keith (husband Joey).
Education career
In 1968, Winningham was elected superintendent of schools in his native Pickett County, becoming the youngest-ever school superintendent there, at age 28. He served in that capacity for four years. In addition to teaching school, he was also a basketball coach.
Winningham was named principal at Scott High School in Huntsville in 1983, succeeding Taskel Welch and becoming the school’s second principal. He served in that capacity until 1994, when he was succeeded by Gary Cross. During his tenure, Scott High was named a Governor’s Great School of Tennessee in 1987.
The Winningham family moved to Helenwood, and were members of First Presbyterian Church of Huntsville.
Politics
Winningham was elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 1984, representing the 38th District in the House of Representatives. The district included Clay, Jackson, Macon, Pickett and part of Anderson County, in addition to Scott County. Although the district was heavily conservative, Winningham was elected as a Democrat. He was subsequently re-elected 12 times between 1986 and 2008, serving a total of 26 years in the legislature.
During his tenure in Nashville, Winningham served as chairman of the House Education Committee for 10 years, and chairman of the Joint Select Oversight Committee on Education. He also served on the Education Oversight Committee, House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee, House Calendar and Rules Committee, House Higher Education Subcommittee, House Transportation Committee, House Public Safety and Rural Roads Subcommittee, the Joint Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation Committee, Joint Lottery Scholarship Committee, and Joint Lottery Oversight Committee.
Winningham was instrumental in the passage of the Tennessee Coordinated School Health Improvement Act of 2000, and played a key role in the establishment of lottery scholarships for Tennessee students, as well as the establishment of pre-kindergarten programs in public schools.
Winningham was named Legislator of the Year by the Tennessee Development District Association, the Tennessee Human Resource Agency, and received the Leadership Award from the Tennessee Adult Education Task Force.
During the 2010 midterms that saw pushback at the state and federal level amid the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama, Winningham fell victim to a tidal wave of change in Tennessee, and was defeated in his re-election bid by Republican Kelly Keisling, an insurance agency owner and past mayor of Byrdstown. The 2010 election marked the first time Republicans gained control of the governorship and both houses of the General Assembly since 1869. While the GOP already had a majority in the House of Representatives going into the 2010 election, the party gained 14 seats that year, giving them 64 out of 99.
That same year, Republican Scott DesJarlais defeated incumbent Democrat Lincoln Davis of Fentress County in Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District, which also included Scott and Pickett counties, among others.
Latter Years
Following the 2010 election, Winningham returned to private life. His wife, Peggy, died of cancer in 2009, and Winningham moved from Helenwood to Cookeville. He was a major supporter of his alma mater, Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville.
Winningham died on June 19, 2022, at age 81. A funeral service was held June 25, 2022 at First United Methodist Church of Cookeville. He was buried at Smyrna Cemetery in Byrdstown, Tenn., where his wife and parents are also buried.
At the time of his death, Winningham had eight grandchildren.