Theresa Gayle Hill Williams (Gayle) was born August 9, 1935, and entered into eternal rest in Charlottesville, VA on July 7, 2023 at the age of 87. Gayle will be honored with a funeral service to be held on Monday, July 17 at 2:00 p.m. at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, of which Gayle was a founding member. Interment will follow at Pine Crest Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 1:00 until 2:00 p.m. at Holy Cross prior to the funeral service.
Gayle was a native of Moss Point, Mississippi, the only child of two loving parents, Caroline and Glennon Hill. She graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana. After college, Gayle moved to Mobile to teach grade school. There she met and married the love of her life, Luis Williams. She spent 64 years in Mobile a loving mother, raising four children, and a lifelong learner of Christianity, involving herself in interfaith connections. She loved studying the Bible both at home with her morning devotional and in more formal group settings. She was a caring mother and grandmother who continued educating well after she quit being a teacher; happy to read with her children and grandchildren. She loved to laugh. Her happiest times were with friends and family around a dining table enjoying pimiento cheese or tuna salad, her half of a daily diet coke, and always a little chocolate to top it off!
Gayle was truly the matriarch of the Williams family, guiding and shepherding multiple generations of the family and touching countless other lives. She was always ready to welcome family home and enjoyed having them around (until she wasn’t), happy to hold a child on her lap, rub a back, and smooth hair for comfort. She was most definitely a guiding force. Those who met her knew her as a gracious, kind soul. Those who knew her saw the hidden strength she had in her diminutive frame. In short, she shaped all of our lives.
She was preceded in death by her parents Caroline Schliesser and Glennon Hill and her husband of 56 years, Luis Moragues Williams, Sr. She is survived by her children Luis M. (Connie) Williams, Jr of New Orleans, LA, Caroline W. (Thomas) Hecmanczuk of Charlottesville, VA, Patricia W. (Thomas) Collins of Biloxi, MS and Jean W. (Christopher) Pal-Freeman of Olmos Park, TX, and nine grandchildren, Emily Williams, Paul Hecmanczuk, Theresa Hecmanczuk, William Hecmanczuk, Isabel Hecmanczuk, Thomas (Alyssa) Collins, Cecilia Collins, Meredith Collins, and Catherine Pal-Freeman.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the charity of your choice in Gayle’s name.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.radneyfuneralhome-mobile.com for the Williams family.
