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William Winter entered his term as Governor seeking to change education in Mississippi. After failing three times to get a law passed establishing public kindergarten, Winter turned to his friend and political novice Ray Mabus, who suggested they expand their reform efforts.
"Instead of simply trying to pass kindergartens and compulsory education, to do a much more comprehensive bill, and to run a campaign for it. To run it like an election," says Mabus. "And he bought into it. He accepted it."
Mabus and a coalition known as the Boys of Spring did just that. And, during a December 1982 special session, William Winter ushered in what many lawmakers still consider the most comprehensive education reform in Mississippi history.
Senator Hillman Frazier, Democrat from Jackson, was a first term member of the House of Representatives that year. He says education was not an issue lawmakers gave much attention to then, but that Winter persisted.
"Back then the legislature wasn't interested in education reform," Frazier remembers. "But he overcame that by looking at the big picture, seeing how education could rise the state from the position it was in."
Mabus, who would later serve as Governor from 1988 to 1992, calls Winter an exemplar of public service. He says the late Governor's commitment to education helped progress the state.
"His belief that Mississippi could do better, and that government had a very positive role to play," recalls Mabus. "And that education was the way up and the way out."
Governor William Winter, also considered a great reconciler of race relations in Mississippi, died at age 97.
