The Way We Were: Winslow Ira Colbert
Winslow Ira Colbert of Ortega got her first boat, a wooden Curley boat with a 35mph motor, when she was fourteen years old. Her dad would launch it for her in the morning and the self- described “river rat” cruised up and down McGirt’s Creek, Moon Lake and the St. Johns River to Timuquana Country Club, the Yacht Club and all the way to Ft. George Island. She said, “I’d just be by myself goofing around. When my sister Liz (Elizabeth Ira Williams) got older she would sometimes come along.” Winslow related in her laughing manner that by the time she was a teenager she was cruising to Orange Park to “look for trouble.”
The Ira girls, Winslow, Liz, and Mary Stewart Ira Farnell, came by their love of the river from a legacy of family interests and growing up in historic Ortega. After moving to McGirt’s Boulevard across from the Boyd’s house when Winslow was in the first grade the family fished and crabbed off the Boyd’s dock. The river was a big part of their lives especially since their dad Stewart Ira is a past commodore of the Florida Yacht Club. Winslow said, “Dad always had a boat, and his boats were always named the “Four Ladies.” Each one had a flag with a profile of our mother, Bebe, and my sisters and me on it.”
Winslow’s family has a long history in Jacksonville. Her mother Elizabeth “Bebe” Brown was born in St. Vincent’s Hospital and grew up on Donald Street in Riverside. The Ira family has been here for generations as well. Winslow said her grandmother loved laughing and telling how after Bebe and Stewart married, they “went off to Gainesville in an old woody station wagon with mushrooms growing out the back.” Stewart attended University of Florida after returning from Germany after WW2. That humorous attitude of Winslow’s grandmother has reappeared throughout the generations. During her illness Bebe is quoted as warning her husband “to beware of the first woman with a casserole.” Winslow laughed saying, “She must have told her bridge club because after she passed on everyone brought pound cakes! Dad is quite a catch. He turned 90 in December. In 2012 he married Eileen Moore, twelve years his junior.”
Education was important in the family.” We were raised that you weren’t through with school until you got a degree.” After graduating from St. Johns Country Day School Winslow followed in her mother and Aunt Anis Ira Daley’s footsteps to attend Salem College in North Carolina then transferred to University of Florida to get a degree in Agriculture with aspirations of becoming a VOAG teacher. She never did. She got married instead and took off out West “doing the rich, young hippie, airstream living thing.” She and her then husband lived in a trailer park in Draper, Utah where they sought adventures and soared through the valley doing tandem and solo flying. Her dad, she said, thought it was great!
Fast forward a few years and a few more adventures to 1981 when Winslow came back to Jacksonville and moved in with her mom’s mother- Thiot Brown, a retired interior designer, where she stayed until her grandmother passed on the next year. Winslow got her real estate license (after all- her dad had certainly had great success in real estate development with Bvj, Ltd.) She went to work for Watson Realty where her life took another unexpected turn. Winslow reminisced, “I sort of knew Bart Colbert from high school even though he went to Lee. He had a cute little face – he was sort of a teddy bear, but he could be a bulldog! Bart was a great negotiator and I loved to show houses, so we worked well together. He was married to Lamar Houghton but after their divorce Bart and I married on Valentine’s Day 1992 in the Boyd Chapel of Ortega Church when Bart’s children, Jeanne Lamar (Petersen) and Amelia (Rain) were five and eight years old, so we shared custody with their mother. Now I get to be a grandmother to William, Emily Ann and Wade.”
Bart and Winslow worked for Norville Realty for the past 15 years. When the well respected and well loved Bart passed on in 2021, Lee and Susan Norville hosted the reception after his Celebration of Life at Ortega Church where both couples are members and where Winslow’s parents and grandparents had been members and where she was confirmed. After sixteen years as Administration and Financial Coordinator of the church, Winslow recently retired. Pastor Art McClellan stated in the Ortega Spire: “While Winslow performed admirably as our church administrator, she has also prayed for us, laughed with us, cried when we cried, and celebrated in our joyous faith in Christ Jesus.”
Even in her sadness at the loss of her husband Winslow facilitated a Grief Share group – Surviving the Holidays. She is an active member of Women for Christ and facilitates a Bible Study. Before Covid put everyone at arm’s length people often made their way to her office to admire her angel collection, grab a piece of candy from the candy jar and get a generous, loving, Mama Bear type hug. She stated that she is so blessed. “I’m clinging to God’s promises, and I just try not to be too judgy about people. I was raised in the church and my grandmother Anis Ira was a wonderful example. I hold her up as my model. Hazel Montgomery once said that when Anis Ira walked into a room, people just got nicer.”
The Iras are a close family and for many years enjoyed getting together every Thanksgiving at THE FARM. Her grandfather bought property- 120 acres- in the 1940’s at what used to be called Russell Landing – a trading post- near Green Cove Springs and her great grandfather, grandfather and dad built the house from timber cut on the property. It is a pine tree farm now, but the house is used by many members of the extended family. “There are a lot of us now, so we have to keep a calendar.” Winslow recently took grandson William and a few of his friends for a weekend at the farm to celebrate his 13th birthday.
Winslow plans to stay active in her church and with Bart’s children and grand-children. She enjoys spending time with her sisters, Liz and Mary Stewart and hearing about their families. The sisters try to have a “sister dinner” once a month with Bodrum being a favorite.
Winslow has a history of caring and care giving. She cared for her grandmother, Bart’s mother, Bart and her family and cares for everyone who has the need of a loving caring friend. Pastor Art McClellan said that 2:1-5 of Philippians reflects the life Winslow seeks to live. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit…look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.” With her throaty laugh, warm smile, her stretched out lilting greeting – “heeyyyyy”- and gracious Southern manner – Winslow is like her grand-mother. You just want to be nicer when you are around her. And if you aren’t – she won’t judge you too harshly.
By Peggy Harrell Jennings
Resident Community News
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