Jill C. Williams

August 24, 1936 to March 22, 2020

Eleanor S. (“Jill”) Williams passed away on March 22, 2020 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan at the age of 83. She was born on August 24, 1936 in Detroit, the only child of Gerald F. (“Sonny”) Schneider and Eleanor R. (“Ellie”) Carlisle Schneider.

Jill grew up in Grosse Pointe. She attended local schools, graduating from Grosse Pointe High in 1954. High school was fun for Jill, due in part to the fact Sonny sold Cadillac automobiles and later, Packard’s. Jill and her friends made great use of the access she had to the pride of Detroit manufacturing. After high school, Jill enrolled in Bennett Junior College in Millbrook, New York where she studied art and interior design.

After college, she returned to Grosse Pointe and quickly found work with the J.L. Hudson Co. department store in downtown Detroit. She loved fashion and design, and Hudson’s was the place for that in Detroit in the 50’s. It was an exciting time, during which she met her first husband, William E. (“Bill”) Hosler, Jr. Bill lived at the Shangri-La, a boarding house for young professional men. They met when Jill, with her friend Judy, got a job decorating Shangri-La. Bill and Jill married in 1957 and moved to Lewiston, NY, a suburb of Niagara Falls. Their first child, son William E. (“Will”) Hosler, III was soon born in Niagara Falls, followed two years later by daughter Eleanor C. (“Nell”) Hosler Beattie. In Lewiston, Jill joined the Frontier House Theater, a community theater troupe. She loved performing, and the variety of many eclectic friends she made. One of her more memorable experiences on stage, one of several to make the papers, involved being swung in the air by 2 players from the NFL Buffalo Bills while she sang (out of tune she would admit). But while in NY, she mostly loved spending time with her children and their big clumsy basset hound, “Headlight”.

Jill got “unmarried” from Bill in 1967 and returned to Grosse Pointe where she quickly found work at the Saks Fifth Avenue store in mid-town Detroit. Despite her limited retail experience and young age, Saks hired her as a buyer of women’s clothing, and soon made her the head of an exclusive women’s clothing boutique shop. Jill regularly travelled to NYC to buy for her boutique, where her customers included local and national celebrities. It was during this time that she met David P. Williams, also previously married, who was to become the love of her life.

Jill married David in July of 1972. At the time, Jill, Will and Nell lived with Ellie in her rambling house in Grosse Pointe. Ellie was a successful interior decorator running her business out of that house. For decades, there was a constant throng of people (customers, deliveries, family, friends, you name it), as well as a revolving menagerie of pets, who helped create the joyous mayhem in the house that Jill loved. To this, David agreed to become a part. He lived in Grosse Pointe with Jill for almost 50 years despite working (and golfing) on the other side of town. He would do anything for Jill.

After Saks, for 15 years Jill was a partner with Chapman, Klingensmith & Williams, a shop in Grosse Pointe Park which sold antiques on consignment, in addition to conducting estate sales. Thereafter, Jill continued the tradition of her mother and worked as an interior decorator out of the house in Grosse Pointe.

Jill loved Grosse Pointe, and the entire Detroit community, as evidenced by her lifelong participation in and support of local charitable, educational, and philanthropic groups. She was the former chair of the Red Cross Ball, the Christmas Walk at Meadowbrook Hall, and the Village Antiques Show at Lovett Hall in Greenfield Village. She was a member supporter of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and a longtime regular of its Woman’s Committee (and a past President). She was a member of the Garden Club of Michigan and the Sigma Gamma Association, as well as the Detroit Institute for Children, Meadow Brook Hall, the Detroit Artists Market, and the Music Hall.

Jill was further sustained and enriched with a special group of friends she made in childhood with whom she remained connected her entire life. Within the borders of the Grosse Pointe’s, Jill, Lauren, Susan, Lynn and Judy all married, established families, and were a constant presence in each other’s lives. Perhaps it was due to the sensitivity of being an only child, but to Jill these women were, and are, her “sisters”.

When David married Jill, she became stepmother to David’s daughter Tracy Williams, and sons M. S. Perry Williams, and David P. Williams, Jr. And while none of them lived full-time at the Grosse Pointe house, their visits were always so much fun.

David was the key to Jill’s life. With him, she could laugh, love, travel, be serious, be silly, be herself. They were each other’s fiercest supporters. With her impeccable taste and easy charm, she entertained with him for his career as a corporate leader both at home, and internationally. They unwound at their residence in Florida in a golfing community where the clubhouse was once decorated by Jill’s mother, Ellie.

Jill is survived by husband David, her children Will (of Bloomfield Hills, MI), Nell (of Beverly Hills, MI), three grandchildren, William Elliott Beattie, IV, Brooks Carlisle Beattie, and Dean Otto Hosler, her stepchildren, Tracy (of NYC), Perry (of Clarkston), and David (of Ft. Lauderdale), step-grandchildren Makenzie Williams and Marshall Williams, most of her “sisters”, and many other dear friends she made along the way, both in Grosse Pointe and parts beyond.

Given current events, the family has no definite plans for a service or memorial other than to hope one may be scheduled in the late spring or summer, 2020. Details will be posted on the website of the A.H. Peters Funeral Home (www.ahpeters.com). At that time, Jill’s family would love to see or hear from you to celebrate the gift of Jill’s life.

The family suggests that any expressions of sympathy be made to the charity of your own choosing but today more than ever, hospital’s need our help. Jill was especially fond of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, 3901 Beaubien Blvd., Detroit, MI 48201 (www.childrensdmc.org).