Jean Daugherty Williams

Eugenia (Jean) Elizabeth Daugherty Williams, 94 years of age and a native of Mobile, died January 29, 2021 at Homestead Village, Fairhope. She is survived by her son Robert Gerald Williams and daughter-in-law Lisa Boccetti of Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as by her granddaughter, Laura Catherine Williams of Houston, Texas. She was preceded in death by her husband of fifty-five years, James Hollis Williams, a World War II navy veteran who saw combat as a torpedoman in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, as well as by her parents, Claude Coleman Daugherty and Lucy Davis Daugherty of Mobile. Jean Williams attended Murphy High School, and during her senior year she worked afternoons in the bookkeeping department of the Merchants National Bank. She went on to attend Howard College, now Samford University, and every summer returned to Mobile to work at the Merchants Bank. After graduating in 1949 and marrying that same year, she worked for three years as secretary to the president of Howard College, Dr. Harwell G. Davis. Later moving back to Mobile, she worked again at the Merchants National Bank from 1954 to 1965 as secretary to executive vice president Joseph S. Norton. In 1965, after moving to Macon, Ga., she earned a Master’s in education at Georgia College and taught accounting and business in Macon at Miller High School, later renamed Central High School. She retired in 1982 to the mountains of Linville, N.C., but eventually the couple returned once again to the Mobile area, which she always considered home. For years she was active in promoting veterans’ affairs, particularly in regard to William F. Green State Veterans Home, Bay Minette, and organizing reunions of the former World War II crew of the USS Dennis. Her consuming interest in life was her large family, including her beloved parents, her eight brothers and sisters, her twenty-seven nieces and nephews, their children and grandchildren, and many other relatives. She was a stalwart Baptist, in childhood at Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile and at the end of her life at Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church in Fairhope. Arrangements by Pine Crest Funeral Home, 1939 Dauphin Island Parkway, Mobile, AL. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church, 8717 Fairhope Avenue, Fairhope AL 36532.