Emil G. Winstedt (1887-1963)
A native of southern Sweden, with a thick Danish/Swedish accent, Winstedt, as everybody knew him, was an institution all by himself. In many ways he was far ahead of his time, both as an imaginative entrepreneur in ministry and as a passionate and tender-hearted winner of souls for the kingdom. Part of that, no doubt was his lovable nature, which appealed to all ages and bridged geographic, doctrinal, and ethnic divides wherever he worked and lived. He was famous for his regular ”Cuvenant Radio Hour” over WIBW, Topeka, Kansas, or “WubbiuIBWubbiu” as he spoke of it.. Often after recording there he would go home and listen in to himself, affirming “Dat’s good preachin!” And once after hearing his son Clarence speak he opined that “Now ders at least two good preaches in the Cuvanant!” When ask how Clarence was otherwise doing he said, “Yust fine. He’s already had two fuunerals!”
A year after Alyce and I were married, we encountered him outside the Annual Meeting in Minneapolis. After he and I exchanged greetings, he saw Alyce, who he had known from earlier das in Kansas City. “Alley-Mae! Is dis your vife, Yim?” he asked, after which he said with some delight, “I tell yu, yu didn’t get a lemon, yu got a peach!”
Karl Olsson, our late Covenant historian once told of Winstedt’s running his car into a ditch after killing a calf on a Midwest country road while traveling together. It was late evening, but the old veteran went undaunted to the owner’s nearby farmhouse, announcing, “I’m Emil G. Winstedt. I yust killed yur caf, and went in the ditch down the road. Can you pull me out?”. After the farmer did, Winstedt told his rescuer about himself as a minister and radio speaker. Mentioning nothing about paying for the farmer’s calf—or rescuing him from the ditch—he simply asked before pulling away, “Vud you like to make a contibution?”
The stories are legion, but one more must be shared. He once went with Hebert Palmquist to Maxwell Street in Chicago, a fascinating, historic place where one could bargain with shop-owners over wares fully displayed out in the open. Winstedt was having a wonderful time until a woman of the street came up and propositioned him. Never without words, yet no doubt taken aback with surprise and embarrassment he said, abruptly, “I ain’t got time!”
