Willie Mar Williamson

Willie Mae Williamson was born in 1937 on Christmas Eve in Parrish, Florida. It has been told that
her birth interrupted the preparation of Christmas dinner that year, as she was born in front of the
fireplace, in the heart of her grandparents’—Charlie and Rebecca Williamson’s—home.
The second of three daughters, Willie Mae was named after her uncle, Willie James (Willie J.), her
father CJ’s brother. And growing up, she was known as “Boy,” a nickname she shared with her
grandfather, Amos Haile, who was known as “Mr. Boy.
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As a teenager in the 1940s, she would travel “on the seasons” with her family, from Florida to
Upstate New York as a migrant farm worker until she moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1961. She
met her husband, George Williams, at the Arlington Club, where he worked as a photographer, and
they remained united until his death. For more than 30 years, she worked on Long Island as a
housekeeper for the family of Dr. Harold Carlin until she retired in 2011, when she increased her
devotion to her church family at Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church.
Willie Mae had an extraordinary gift of song and loved to sing in church, as a member of the choir
and as a soloist. She also had an encyclopedic knowledge of old movies and actors and a passion for
doll collecting. Having more than one hundred dolls in her collection, she often loaned them to local
libraries for display.
She is preceded in death by her father, Charles “CJ” Williamson Sr., and her beloved mother, Edna
Haile-Williamson. She leaves to cherish precious memories her loving sisters, Rose Mae Powell
(Timothy, d.), Charlie Mae Owens (Perk, d.), Gloria Bell, Gwendolyn Taylor, and Ruth Johnson; her
brothers, Glenn, Clarence, and Charles Williamson Jr.; her aunt, Rubye Barnes; and her son, Rick
Williamson Sr. (Betty). She also leaves to mourn her grandchildren, Brandhi and Rick Williamson Jr.,
two great-grandchildren, and a host of nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, and
great-nieces and great-nephews.

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