Ann Cecilia Roden Williams

Ann Cecilia Roden Williams left us on Friday, November 14, 2014. She led a life filled with love, laughter, and humor. Ann was one of five sisters and the last of her generation. Born at home on Hibernian Street on “Irish Hill” in Pratt City and educated just up the street at the old Saint Catherine's and then Saint Paul's High School, she was as bright as any college graduate you ever knew. Ann and her sisters found joy in simple things, were raised during the Great Depression, loved going to Barons’ games at Rickwood, used streetcars for transportation, and generally belonged to the acknowledged greatest generation of Americans to date.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 53 years, Sterling Williams. Ann is survived by four children – John (Cheryl) Williams, Brian Williams, Barbara (Tony) Taylor and Lynn (John) Bertolini. She is also survived by ten grandchildren, Libby Williams (Greg) Mink, Lauren and Bridget Williams; Sterling, Claire, Hill, and Paige Williams; Madeline and Matthew Taylor; and Christopher Bertolini; two great-grandchildren, Mason and Wyatt Mink; her niece (who was raised as a sister), Betty DiGrazia, and many other loving nieces and nephews (each of whom Ann treated as a child of hers, just as each of her sisters treated Ann’s children as their own).

A life-long devout Catholic, she fell in love with a Methodist and at that time could not be married in the Church. She did, however, arrange to be married in the rectory next door to Saint Catherine's in a Catholic ceremony. Her husband, Sterling, later became Catholic and, according to Ann, was even more devout than she.

Ann's parents were William and Ruth Roden. William was born in Scotland and came to the U. S. as a child. He worked in the mines near Pratt City as a child, then was able to land a job with the Southern Railway as a fireman. He worked his way up to engineer and we all remember picnics at Woodward Park in West End as he hung out the window of the cab of the train waving his engineer's hat at us as he headed south to Meridian. Almost every Sunday, Bill and Ruth hosted the entire clan (numbering 20 or so) at the house on Hibernian. Those days were golden.

Ann and Sterling continued this tradition for their children and grandchildren at their home and all of us have many happy memories of these Sundays of family, good food, and games.

We will all miss Ann very much, but we know she is happy now with Sterling, her parents, her sisters, her nephews, Greg Douglas and Steve Stella, and the many friends who predeceased her.

Visitation will be held Tuesday, November 18, at 11:00 am, at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Hoover, followed by a funeral Mass at noon. Burial immediately following at Elmwood Cemetery.