Obituary of Nancy Marie Williams

Our beautiful mother, Nancy Marie Williams, passed away in the early morning of March 10, 2021. Mom was born in 1942 in Decatur, Illinois. In 1951, she moved with her parents and sister to Olympia, where she spent most of her life. Mom graduated from Olympia High School in 1961. When she was 14 years old, she spent six weeks traveling across the United States with a missionary group. They wound their way through the South and up the Eastern Seaboard to NYC. Her time in the big city sparked a dream that she carried throughout her life, to be a star of stage and screen. While she never realized that dream, she did enjoy singing in church and especially for her children and grandchildren, who will tell you she had the voice of an angel.

 

The real lessons Mom learned from her travels were far more influential in her life. She was deeply shocked by the injustice and brutality she witnessed while traveling through the segregationist South. Those images stayed with her for the rest of her life, influencing how she lived and raised her children. Mom strived to be fair and just; she wouldn’t tolerate bullying or the mistreatment of others. She never met a stranger and there was no limit to her care and concern for all people. Mom’s generosity was as boundless as her love for others. Whether it was the shirt off her back, her last dollar, or a place at her table, she was always there for you. She could talk to anyone and she had an innate sense for what comfort or praise someone needed to hear. She accepted you as you were, never asking you to change in exchange for her love and respect. Mom always said, “Everyone has a flat side.” She recognized that we are all flawed and she was always ready to hold your hand as you worked through whatever you were struggling with. She was a giver, in the truest sense of the word.

 

Mom married three times, each time to wonderful men who loved her deeply. In 1966, Mom married Mick Skeels and had four daughters. Years later, she married Charles Williams, who encouraged her to enroll in college and eventually obtain her realtor’s license, leading to a successful career buying and selling real estate. Most recently, in 2011, she wed Darwin Hart and traveled with him to his home in Magnolia, Texas, where they lived until his passing in 2015. In addition to a loving husband, Magnolia gifted Mom with six more children, several grandchildren, and a host of friends that she always spoke of with great love and affection. After Dar’s passing, Mom returned to Olympia, where she remained for the rest of her days, surrounded by her family.

 

Mom is survived by her sister, Kathi (Jim); her niece, Jennifer (Ian); nephew, Jimmy (Cori); daughters, Kathleen, Kimberly, Kelli, and Kendra; grandchildren, Sara, Chelsea, Nikita, Raymond, Chad, Jonathan, Abbey, Dakota, and Devin; as well as seven great-grandchildren. When Mom married Darwin, she was blessed with the addition of daughters, Sandy, Dena, and Darliss; sons, Randy, David, and Don; and several grandchildren. She also has many cousins in the Midwest whom she loved deeply and would have liked to have spent much more time with.

 

Mom was preceded in death by her parents, Edgar and Dorothy (Bell) Behnken; her husbands; and her great-nephew, Dane Duncan Tolmie, whom she is surely now holding lovingly in her arms.

 

If you were lucky enough to know her, you understand your great fortune. If you didn’t, please know that you would have been fast friends and would be mourning this immense loss with us.

 

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