Betty B. Williams

She was born on May 14, 1929 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Robert Edward Boone and Laurie Feagin Boone. She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama for one year, transferring to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, receiving her BA degree in 1950 with a major in psychology and minor in economics. She moved to New York City soon after graduation, where she was hired by Eastern Air Lines. During her time at Eastern, she worked in the office of the president, Eddie Rickenbacker, in the personnel office, and for the corporate secretary. Later, she worked for a venture capital group headed by two descendants of the Vanderbilt family. And, some years after that, she worked for the Rockefeller Family, for John D. Rockefeller 3rd and his senior assistant, Datus C. Smith, Jr., and in the personal office of Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

Betty met her husband, James D. (Jim) Williams, in New York, soon after he transferred from Dallas to work at the headquarters of Texaco. They married in 1959. Their son, Jefferson Boone (Jeff) Williams, was born in New York in 1962. They lived in the city several years, then moved to Riverdale, New York, along the Hudson River, and later to Tenafly, New Jersey. In 1980, Jeff left for college, choosing the University of Texas, his father’s alma mater. In 1981, Jim retired from Texaco, and he and Betty moved to Dallas. Jim began a consulting business in oil and gas properties. Betty had started law school in New York, and finished her final year at Southern Methodist University Law School as a visiting student, receiving her law degree in 1982 from Fordham University Law School in New York. In 1983, Betty and Jim moved to Austin, Texas. Jim continued his oil and gas consulting business, and Betty began her law practice as a solo practitioner. They had followed the University of Texas sports program while in Dallas, and participated more after moving to Austin, with season tickets to the football, basketball and baseball games, going to many of the post-season bowl games in which Texas played. They were charter members of the Blanton Museum of Art, the University of Texas Club, and Quest, one of the extended education programs for seniors at the University. They were also members of the Harry Ransom Center, the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and the Bullock Texas History Museum.

Betty is survived by her son, of Los Angeles, California, her granddaughter, Gladys Williams, of Los Angeles, three nephews, two grandnephews and two grandnieces. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and her brother, Robert Edward Boone, Jr. of Birmingham, Alabama.

A memorial service will be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday 12 September 2026 in the Weed-Corley-Fish Chapel, located at 5416 Parkcrest Drive, Austin, Texas 78731, followed by a reception. A later graveside memorial service will be held in Tuscaloosa, when Betty’s ashes will be buried next to Jim’s ashes in the Boone Family cemetery plot at Tuscaloosa Memorial Park.

For those who want to make donations in Betty’s memory, the family suggests that memorial gifts may be made to KMFA, Austin’s classical music station; KLRU, Austin’s PBS station, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; the University of Texas, Austin, Texas; or to a charity of their choice.