Bernice Elizabeth Williams

Bernice packed a lot into her long life: raising children and grandchildren, building B-47s and B-52s, working for an electronics startup and later pivoting to the fashion industry. She was a long-term resident of the Oakland Terrace neighborhood in the Red Bird area of Dallas and was a member of Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church.

Bernice was born on July 24, 1925, to Ed Crenshaw and Sallie Wilson in Travis County near the Elroy community south of Austin. Bernice said her father, “Daddy Ed,” was a funny man who loved to joke around. Her mother was more serious but loved conversation.

Her paternal grandparents were John and Elezebeth Crenshaw. She knew John but didn’t know Elezebeth, who died around the time Bernice was born. She said John was 7 years old when enslaved Texans learned they were free.

Bernice saw John as a “boss.” She said when he babysat her and her sister Johnnie all he ever did was boss people around from the porch.

In the summer, Bernice and Johnnie were sent to the fields to pick cotton for cash that was used to buy clothing. When Bernice was about 10, she protested that she didn’t want to go to the field because the grass was wet. John said it would be dry by the time they got out there. After being out awhile, Johnnie, her sister, would get sick and hang out under the wagon instead of picking cotton. Bernice said, “How did you get sick so fast? I wish I knew how to get sick.”

Her maternal grandfather, Eddie Wilson “Papa Eddie,” had horses at Bergstrom Field (now Austin-Bergstrom International Airport). “We would ride slowly until we got over a hill out of sight and then we would ride as fast as the horses would go,” Bernice said. “My favorite horse’s name was Mary. She was a good horse for kids. If the kid fell off of Mary, she would stop and wait for you to get back on. If you slid off the back of her, she would wait for you to come talk to her, get back on and gallop off for a fun ride. She was a little-people horse!”

Bernice attended a one-room school in Elroy until she started high school at L.C. Anderson High School in Austin. She received her GED from Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas in 1966. She attended El Centro College and received a certification in electronics in 1975.

She married Edgar Williams on Oct. 31, 1951. She had four children: Barbara, Richard, Marvin and Alvin.

Bernice met Edgar at a drugstore ice cream bar in Austin. A year after they wed, they moved to Wichita, Kan., to work for Boeing, where Bernice helped build B-47s and B-52s. After five years there, they returned to Texas and settled in Dallas, where Bernice answered an ad to work for a garage-based electronics startup that would become Recognition Equipment Inc.

She said her boss was Terry Lovelady, an engineer who was building cleaning electronics in his garage. Bernice was hired to assemble the cleaners. When neighbors complained that there were too many trucks coming to the house, Lovelady got money from relatives to move his operation. She said it was the best thing that ever happened to her, “The best job!”

She retired in 1992 from Recognition Equipment Inc. (REI).

She was an active member of Oak Cliff Presbyterian for more than 33 years. Among other church activities, she was part of a sewing group that raised money for children’s charities.

Among her favorite things: the color blue, Count Basie, football (her son Alvin Matthews played for the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks) and fried fish and shrimp. Her favorite TV shows were westerns and WFAA-TV (Channel 8) news.

Among the stories she enjoyed recounting were her adventures in Atlantic City, where she traveled to stay with a cousin.

Bernice was just 19 when she took the train to Atlantic City. She said she tried to be a bigshot when she got there and hailed a cab, though she wasn’t sure where she was going. It seemed like the cab driver drove her around and around, and when he finally let her out, it was so close to where they started, she could have walked there.

During her stay, she met a woman who gave her a job in a laundry, where she starched shirts. The laundromat was on the ocean, and one day a storm blew in, water began to flood the laundromat and they had to flee. Bernice said the employees got together and made a human chain to escape. The water was up to her chest, and she said she was just glad that she wasn’t on the end of the chain. She didn’t want to play Pop the Whip in what became known as the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944.

Mama Bun’s advice to family members was to stay together and keep in touch. She had attended several family reunions.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Edgar; three brothers, James “Snookie,” Chester Bernard and Carl Robert; her sister Johnnie Mae; her daughter Barbara LaVerne and son Alvin Leon; and a granddaughter, Tanya Crenshaw of Germany and grandson, James “Butch” LeBlanc, III.

She is survived by her sister Arthur Gene “Tennie” Crenshaw Pleasant of Chasken, Minn.; her sons Richard Allen Crenshaw (Dianne) of Houston and Marvin Eugene Crenshaw of Dallas; her grandchildren Terry Lynn Crenshaw of Dallas, Mia Crenshaw-Morrison (John) of Dallas, LaShea Crenshaw-Rivon (Chad) of Houston, Malika Crawford (Calvin) of Forney, Jonathan Green of Denton, Marcus Matthews (Kama) of North Richland Hills and Kia Matthews of Austin a host of grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, and extended family.

A visitation service is scheduled to take place at Laurel Land Funeral Home, located at 6300 South R.L. Thornton Freeway, Dallas, TX 75232, on March 5, 2026, from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

The funeral service will be held at Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church, 6000 South Hampton Road, Dallas, TX 75232, on March 6, 2026, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm.

A graveside service will follow at Laurel Land Memorial Park, 6300 South R.L. Thornton Freeway, Dallas, TX 75232, on March 6, 2026, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.