Jane Rachel Lipsky Williams

Jane Rachel Lipsky Williams, 88, of Sneads Ferry, NC, passed away Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at Lower Cape Fear Life Care Center.

Jane was born on August 23, 1935 at home in Detroit, MI to the late Dr. Jacob S. Lipsky and Evelyn Victoria Stark. She was a proud first generation American, and the daughter of Russian Jews who fled the pogroms of Czar Nicholas. She was preceded in death by her husband, Alfred Williams and her siblings: Samuel, Harvey, Rhea, Audrey, and Shirley. She was the last of her Fathers children or as he often would say, “the last of the Mohicans”.

Jane was a fiercely independent, and intellectual woman, who was also a loving Wife, Mother, and Grandmother. She was an avid reader of history, great fiction, foreign films…especially those by Federico Fellini, the piano, and who at one time enjoyed avant-garde coffee houses with the likes of famed folk singer Buffy St Marie. She never stopped learning. Well into her 80s she continued to teach herself new and ever more difficult repertoire for her piano and spent untold hours just to get it right. One of her favorites was Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie. Jane was always interested in current affairs, and, cared about people. She never hesitated to speak her mind, and would attend Board of Education meetings, write letters to the editor and never shied away from expressing herself. During the height of the civil rights movement, while traveling alone on a bus in Mississippi, she refused to move to the front, in the whites only section and in no uncertain terms told the bus driver she wasn’t moving. In her later years she became an amateur genealogist, who painstakingly combed through centuries of her families records until the trail ran cold…usually somewhere in 1600s. It was a labor of love that took several years to complete and has become an irreplaceable resource for distant family members all over the world. Some of her fondest memories include eating at the world-famous American Coney Island restaurant in Detroit on her lunch break or driving across the southwest in a 1957 Buick with her friend Harriet on Route 66.

As a mother she was a trusted confidant and friend to her sons. Never hesitating to provide insightful advice, or a sympathetic ear. As a grandmother she helped to pass on her love of music.

Jane is survived by her sons, Kevin (Kathy), Eric, Darrell, and Neil (Fatima), and her grandchildren, Justin, Lauren, Mathew, Jacob, Sophia, Gabrielle, Mary, Layla, Adam, and Ethan.

A graveside funeral service will be held at 2:00 pm Friday, March 29, 2024, at Temple of Israel Cemetery, 1710 Princess Place Drive, Wilmington, NC 28405.

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