Wuanita Williams

  General Notes:

Funeral of Waunita Williams Ray, September 5, 1974, in Life Magazine
Waunita Williams Ray, January 7, 1896, - August 30, 1974, was the eldest daughter of William Butler Williams and Emma Frances Lambert Williams. Her youngest son, Bill, photographed her funeral on September 5, 1974, at the Unitarian Church of Lincoln, Nebraska as his Life Magazine assignment for One Day in the Life of America, a Life Magazine Special Report. The photo appeared on page 69.
Although the photo caption said she was sitting at a new blank canvas when she died, that is not quite accurate. She had everything set up to begin a new painting when she broke a glass jar used for soaking brushes, etc, and swept the broken glass into a pile with a broom. When she stooped over to sweep it into the dust pan, she suffered a fatal heart attack and died instantly at age 78. Ten years earlier her younger brother, James Lambert Williams, had died instantly from a similar cardiac arrest at age 57, and 18 months after Nita's death, James Lambert's son, Gene Garrett Williams, 46, died almost instantly while working.
Pictured in the photo is Bill's wife Marlys holding their youngest daughter, Ashley, viewing Waunita in the casket. Relatives visiting in the background include Waunita's cousin, Hobart Lambert and wife Melba Garrett Lambert, her nephew, Lloyd Williams (son of her elder brother George Albert Williams) and Lloyd's wife Mona, her sister-in-law, Daisy Williams, wife of her youngest brother Harold Williams, her niece, Marcia Ray Wythers, and other unidentified friends and relatives.

Wuanita married George Webster Ray on 31 Dec 1919. (George Webster Ray was born on 5 Nov 1890, died on 30 Jul 1960 in Lincoln, NE and was buried in Lincoln, NE.)