Jerry Gee Williamson

August 14, 1928 – May 13, 2014

Obituary

TJFT: J’s Obituary

Jerry Gee Jackson Williamson, a second-generation San Diegan, born in 1928, was the only child of the late newspaperwoman Eileen Jackson and the late artist-educator Everett Gee Jackson. Her maternal grandparents arrived in San Diego as children in the 1880s. Mrs. Williamson attended Francis Parker from nursery school through the ninth grade, graduated from San Diego High School in 1946, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Stanford University in 1950.

As a teen-ager she played tennis competitively in tournaments throughout California. During that period she won a number of singles and doubles titles. In the summer following her graduation from high school, she competed in the National Junior Girls’ (18-and-under) Championship, in Philadelphia, and in the Women’s National Championship, at Forest Hills. She was the fifth-ranked Junior Girls’ singles player in the nation in 1946.

While attending Stanford, she practiced tennis in the afternoons with the Men’s Varsity, and every now and then played in a northern-California tournament. She regretted that in those days colleges did not have women’s athletic teams. In her freshman year, a few weeks after she had won the Pacific Coast Junior Girls’ singles and doubles titles, she enjoyed playing for Stanford in a “Women’s Sports Day” against women from UC Berkeley. She wished that more such “Sports Days” could have been held. She was very pleased when in 1995 Stanford presented her with its Block S award, an honorary award that the university sent to all of Stanford’s Pre-Title IX women athletes.

After college, Mrs. Williamson played tennis recreationally until she was nearly sixty. One of the highlights of her life occurred in 1980 during a friendly mixed-doubles match in which one of her opponents was the opera star Luciano Pavarotti. After Mrs. Williamson had engaged Mr. Pavarotti in a lengthy rally at net, she finally put the ball past him. At that, he dropped his racket, stretched out his arms toward her, and exclaimed, “Brava! Brava!” Mrs. Williamson, a great opera fan, always said that it just didn’t get any better than that!

In 1951 she married her first husband, Duncan Waterman, of Westport, Connecticut, who was a stockbroker in San Diego from 1959 until his death in 1965. They had two sons. In 1967 she married architect Tom Williamson, of the Bay Area, a widower with a small daughter. Mr. Williamson moved with his daughter to San Diego, and after he and Mrs. Williamson had succeeded in putting their two families together, they had a daughter in 1970.

Besides being a homemaker, Mrs. Williamson taught briefly at Francis Parker, and served as a community volunteer. She held several positions on the board of the San Diego Junior League in the 1960s and on the board of Madcaps in the 1970s . For a number of years she was a member of the Latin American Arts Committee at the San Diego Museum of Art. From 1998 to 2000, she served on the board of the San Diego County Committee of the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in California.

After physical problems ended her tennis-playing days, Mrs. Williamson turned to an early love: writing. In November 2000 the San Diego Historical Society and Kales Press co-published her book Eileen, a biography of her mother, Eileen Jackson.

Mrs. Williamson is survived by her husband, Tom; two sons, Stephen Waterman of Point Loma and Michael Waterman of La Mesa; two daughters, Tabi Kapple of Eureka and Hildy Hammer of Scripps Ranch; twelve grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.