Barbara Williams' Obituary
Barbara Hutchings (Rand) Williams, 89-and-7/8ths years old, passed away on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 after what can best be described as a pretty remarkable run.
Born June 30, 1930 in Arlington, Mass., she identified from beginning to end as a New Englander and was unapologetically proud of her Yankee heritage, even though - through a handful of timezones and a litany of twists and turns - she wound up in Pinckneyville in 1975, 1,200 miles from her beloved ocean, as the proprietor of the Fountain Motel and she lived there for nearly half her life. Barb grew up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and as a teenager learned to jitterbug like there was no tomorrow. She was still jitterbugging as recently as last fall during her time at Cedarhurst Memory Care in Sparta. Anytime there was so much as a hint of Glenn Miller or Tommy Dorsey in the commons area, it was game-on.
Barbara lost her father, the proprietor of a paint and wallpaper store, at age 6, and was raised by her very clever, Maine-born mother who would go on to purchase and renovate the birth place of Henry David Thoreau, author a book, and chop her own firewood until she died at the age of 82. But most impressively, she also did a fine job teaching Barb about the things that mattered. Anyone who ever met Barb would tell you so. She knew about kindness to strangers and made it her life's work, taking in hundreds of down-on-their-luck travelers and townsfolk over the years who needed safe harbor, but couldn't always pay for it. She spent nearly twenty years giving hope and real-world leverage to inmates being held in Perry County Jail on federal drug charges as a volunteer adult educator. She used to call it 'fun with felons Tuesdays,' as she'd toss her algebra and history texts into her canvas Barnes & Noble book bag and head north by foot up Locust Street. She enabled people to reconnect with their dignity by helping them find work or by giving them odd jobs around the motel. She had a real appreciation for people facing challenges or fighting their own demons. She was unimpressed by celebrity or self-important types. One lazy Sunday afternoon, a curly-haired gentleman named Arthur stopped in at the Fountain Motel and inquired about vacancy. She noticed the New York plates on his car and mentioned that he sure was a long way from home. "Yes," he said, as he was filling out the registration card, "I sometimes like to drive the scenic route rather than fly when I go to L.A." Then he tossed her his AMEX card, and she didn't look up or miss a beat, she just said, "Well, Mr. Garfunkel, you'll find a good steak at the Scuttle Inn or if you'd rather, we've got Dairy Queen right across the lot there. Good onion rings." Tommy Dorsey might've gotten her attention, but not this guy. She always saw people through a kind of equalizing lens; no respecter of persons.
She knew that dogs shouldn't be chained to a stake without water or kept outdoors in the freezing cold, and she made a fair number of house calls around town to let others know - in no uncertain terms - that she meant business. She knew that everyone had worth, and she lived it every day. She knew that children were capable of far more than they're typically given credit for. She knew how to pick a pretty good fight with city hall over a water bill, how to raise up a beautiful flower garden, and she knew how to pick herself up, dust herself off, and get back to it when the going got tough. She lost her first husband - a Coast Guardsman - to an accident at sea when she was just 22 years old. She lost her second husband to an electrical accident in the family home in 1979 when she was 48. And she survived a series of pretty bad perms in the late eighties. But, nevertheless, she persisted.
Her faith was an important part of her life, and she was baptized as a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at age 44 in June of 1975, and attended at the Carbondale Ward, the Ava Branch, and the Steeleville Branch until 2018 when her physical limitations made attendance difficult. She fed the missionaries on a regular basis, taught Sunday school, and was active in Relief Society. Outside of the Marriott family, Barb may have been the only Mormon with a liquor license. Certainly the only one in Pinckneyville. In 1980, she and her son, Alan, built the Gambit - a piano bar and lounge - adjacent to the Fountain Motel, now occupied by the First National Bank lending office. At 85, in 2015, she retired from her innkeeper role and went to live with her daughter Jill on the grounds of The Hunt Club in Percy, Illinois. With dementia taking its slow, steady toll, Barb moved to Cedarhurst Memory Care in Sparta before relocating and spending her final three months of life playing cards and tossing good-spirited, jeering glances at the retired octogenarian, Catholic Sisters who shared their time with her at The Sarah Community in Saint Louis.
Barbara was preceded in death by her mother, Marcia Rand; her father, Alfred Rand; her brother, John Rand; her Nephew, Richard Rand; her first husband, Richard Fredey; her second husband, Alan Williams; and close friend, Ardis Howell. She is survived by her daughter, Jill (Ron) Doering of Percy, Illinois; son, Alan (Jeanette) Freant-Williams; son, Craig (Shawna) Williams of Saint Louis, Missouri; granddaughter Kate (Rob) Fox of Los Angeles, California; granddaughter, Tivoli Williams of Saint Louis, Missouri; grandson, Evan Williams, attending college at The University of Chicago; grandson, Bronx Williams of Saint Louis, Missouri; great grandsons, Jack Fox and William Fox of Los Angeles, California; first cousins Arthur 'Garth' (Cindy) Rand of Hanover, New Hampshire; and friend and companion Sharon Pinski of Nashville, Illinois.
The family is planning a private memorial service and celebration of Barbara's life, to be held at a later date in Concord, Massachusetts, where she will be interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Barbara was a tireless advocate for the underdog and felt that literacy, encouragement, and education were among the finest levers we could share with others. To that end, please consider supporting The Rend Lake College Foundation in the name of Adult Learning & Family Literacy, or some other worthy cause for people facing uphill battles. Remember her the next time you see a dog kept outdoors in freezing temperatures or someone who looks like they could use an encouraging word. If just for a moment, channel her strength of character and act. She'd get a huge kick out of it.
Pyatt Funeral Home, Pinckneyville, IL has been entrusted with arrangements.
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