First Street residents remembered in new park<br>

First Street has changed a lot in the past 120-plus years. Many of the original inhabitants were forgotten long ago. But to ensure that the more recent long-time residents on First Street won’t slip into complete anonymity, 6-by-6-inch plaques bearing their names will be placed in the new park along where they lived.

The idea is the brainchild of Robert Mayberry, himself a child of Winslow.

“I’m a native of Winslow and I’m a God-fearing person so I grew up respecting my elders,” he said.

Robert got the idea during a visit to his aunt in Gatesville, Texas where the city planted trees dedicated to long-time citizens. But since most of the trees have been planted in the First Street park, 6-by-6-inch plaques will be put in the ground near trees along the walkway.

Mayberry said he has talked with many families who expressed interest but there are still some details to work out. The plaques are planned to resemble those in the garden in front of City Hall, but the actual design is not yet complete. Families wanting to honor their parents or grandparents would buy the plaques for $100 then the city would reimburse them if the cost is less than that.

“Whatever we’re going to do I want it to be decent,” Mayberry said. “I don’t want it to be just something thrown together, something I could have done myself, you know?

“I’m trying to create some sort of a memory lane so that people, my grandchilden, might walk through there and say, ‘that was my grandfather.’”

His parents, Bennett and Linnes Mayberry, moved to First Street in 1939. Bennett died last year, but Mayberry said he thinks the park is something his dad would have loved.

“Everybody who knows my dad knows that it’d put a big smile on his face to see some kind of development at all in that area,” he said. “It was just dirt when we grew up.”