Nettye Ann Williams, 87, left this life 4 December 2018 surrounded by children and grandchildren. She was born 4 August 1931 in Achille, Oklahoma to O.D. and Vera Cheshire Adams. She had a strong will and was a fighter from infancy surviving a scarlet fever epidemic that took the life of her only sibling. She was a loved and cherished child with a talent for voice and piano. She graduated from high school in Durant, Oklahoma and was a student at Southeastern Oklahoma State University when her father died near her nineteenth birthday. She took a job at Holmes Funeral Home where she would meet a handsome young preacher, Bill Williams at a funeral. After the funeral, Bill asked her out for ice cream. They were engaged 19 December 1950 while decorating a Christmas tree and married 2 June 1951 at Ada, Oklahoma. For the next 60 years, Nettye traveled to Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and South Carolina as the wife of her United Methodist pastor. During those years she had her own children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As a mother of four school aged children, she returned to college and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Jacksonville University in 1969. Education was of great importance and she dearly loved children, all children. Every student she taught was special and each student received her greatest efforts. She was a specialist in elementary reading and middle school science and taught at schools in Florida and South Carolina. She celebrated each graduation, degree and promotion achieved by her family and was positive and encouraging. She was a talented pianist and accompanist and passed on her love of music by teaching beginning piano students. She had a beautiful singing voice and many children learned to sing harmony sitting near her at church. There isn’t a hymn in the United Methodist or Cokesbury Hymnals that she couldn’t play or sing. She loved celebrating Christmas. Her Christmas Trees were always big, shiny productions covered in silver bells and bows with the perfect gifts for everyone. She was gracious, welcoming and “fancy”, a true Lady, perfectly dressed and speaking with a soft southern accent.
Following her husband’s death she lived with many friends at the Methodist Manor of the Pee Dee in Florence, South Carolina. The self-proclaimed “social director,” she loved playing Bridge, Canasta, playing her piano, fashioning holiday wreaths, Easter Bonnets and visiting with neighbors. When her health became fragile she was cared for in the home of her son and daughter in Ormond Beach, Florida. Her children had always been impressed by her inner strength and her control of every situation. She exhibited these talents until her death when she died peacefully and comfortably following a worship service, as she had directed, provided by her sons.
She will be forever loved and celebrated by her children Bill (Linda) Williams of Ware Shoals, South Carolina, Bob and daughter Ginger Williams of Ormond Beach, Florida, Ann (Myles) Hafner of Beulah North Dakota and John (Melissa Clark) Williams of Folly Beach, South Carolina.
She will be remembered with love by her grandchildren Buff Williams (LeAnne) and Haley (Evan) Snow, Bobbie Jo (Johnny) Blakley, Tyler (Carl) Tews and Michael Williams, Malinda (Patrick) Phillips and Jacob Hafner, Amy (Alison) Williams, Amanda (Alex) Roetling, Abby Butts, Johnathan Williams and Jake Butts.
She has blessed with her love great-grandchildren Suzie and Lathan Snow, Alysa and David Blakley, Robby, Charlotte and Jackson Tews, Eli and Annie Hafner, Cameron, Myles and Milly Phillips and Emma Grace Roetling.
She was preceded in death by her husband Rev. Bill Bragg Williams, parents O.D. and Vera Cheshire Adams, sister Rose Dow Adams and grandmother Rose McPherson Cheshire.
In lieu of flowers or memorial donations, her children request that you honor her memory by reading a book to a child, singing a hymn, encouraging a teenager, saying a prayer or contacting an old friend.
