Matt Windham Sr., 91, a machinist for three decades who also ran a well-known hat shop with his wife, Fancie, died Saturday, Oct. 14, of congestive heart failure in St. James Medical Center in Chicago Heights. Born in Pickens County, Ala., Mr. Windham helped manage his family’s timber business, milk dairy, hay farm and molasses mill until 1941, when he moved to Chicago’s South Side in search of job opportunities. For 30 years, he worked as a machinist for Taylor Forge & Pipe Works in Cicero. After retiring in 1967, he became a full-time co-owner of his wife’s millinery, Fancie L. Windham’s Hat Shop, where he cleaned hats, arranged for out-of-town shipments, ran errands and assisted the models at fashion shows. “He was the stage manager,” said his grandson, Eddie E. Smith Jr. The couple relocated the shop from the 500 block of East 43rd Street to 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in 1968. He was a member of the Evening Star Missionary Baptist Church for more than 50 years and served on the trustee board advisory committee and was the long-term chairman of its deacon board. In addition to his wife and grandson, Mr. Windham is survived by a daughter, Dorothy Tompkins-Johnson; a son, Matt Jr.; six other grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; and 10 great-great grandchildren. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Evening Star Missionary Baptist Church, 4235 S. Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago.
