Dorothy May Williams

Dorothy May Pritchard Williams homemaker, volunteer, and Army wife, lived a life of excitement and wanderlust which began as a young child. Her family of 5 drove more than 700 miles in a Model T Ford, over dirt roads between Kentucky and Oklahoma to visit relatives. Dorothy was born in Louisville, Kentucky on May 26, 1921 to Mary and Arthur Pritchard. As a young girl she talked of cutting and frying potatoes for a relative with a potato chip business in Louisville. Living through the devastation of the Great Flood of 1937 made a lifelong impression which she talked about frequently. The Ohio River crested at 85 feet washing away their possessions including her prized violin.and leaving her family homeless.

Although she always wanted to be a nurse, she attended business school on her father’s recommendation. After finishing business school she moved to Washington DC in the 1940’s like many young women, to work for the government during the war. She often laughed about her escapades with her roommates during that time. The four roommates would pull the blinds and play cards in the hallway during the “blackout” periods during WWII that required all to turn the lights out. She saved war coupons for weeks to buy meat at the butcher and after cooking it, remarked to the other girls that it was ‘the best horsemeat she had ever tasted’. Her roommate could not be convinced otherwise and refused to eat the meat, even after she told her it was really beef. She often visited with friends living in Afton, VA and talked about going up ‘Walton Mountain’ with the local state trooper to buy moonshine.

Dorothy married Frank S. Williams at Ft. Myer Chapel in August 1952. This was the start of an adventurous life as an Army Officer’s wife that took her to Japan, Hawaii, Alaska, and across the United States twice. They began their married life in Hunting Towers in Alexandria, returned to the area in 1968 from Alaska when Col. Williams was stationed at the Pentagon and then Ft. Belvoir, remaining residents of Northern Virginia for over forty two years.

Dorothy’s adventurous spirits led her to climb Mt. Fuji in Japan; the family moved to Alaska six months after the Great Earthquake of 1964. There she took ski lessons, ice

skated, and they traveled to Mt. McKinley National Park to view the bears, moose, and other wildlife. Her hobbies were many; she took Chinese wok cooking lessons and learned to oil paint in Japan, took up ceramics during the long, dark winter days in Alaska, and camped during the longest days of summer. She bred and raised West Highland White terriers and Yorkshire terriers also showing them in American Kennel Club Shows. She loved gardening, often making watermelon pickles and rose hip tea, and enjoyed sewing and needlework making many costumes and afghans for her family.

She continued to travel with her husband taking a number of cruises including the QE2 across the Atlantic, several trips overseas with WMAL radio personalities Harden & Weaver, kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland, visited England, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Hawaii, and her travels were through more than half of the United States.

She was a life member of the Friendship Chapter No. 17 of the Order of the Eastern Star, the Army Officer Wives Club, a Girl Scout leader, and volunteered in the community. A forty year breast cancer survivor, also legally blind from her early forties from retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration she didn’t let anything slow her down. She cared for her mother, Mary Pritchard, who lived to the age of 103. Yearning to ride on a motorcycle for years, she finally hopped on the back of one at the age of 82, with an encore ride the next year on a jet ski on the Chesapeake Bay.

Dorothy P. Williams passed away peacefully at her home at The Fairfax Retirement Community, Ft. Belvoir, VA on September 19, 2010 at the age of 89. The cause of death was cardiac failure. Wife of the late Col. Frank S. Williams, she is survived by daughters, Sallie (Dennis) Reese, Martha (Steve) Llewellyn, Betsy (Ted) Porter; grandsons, Vincent Reese, Kenneth and William Llewellyn; niece, Lee Ann Meffert; caregiver, Marcela Reyes. She was predeceased by her parents, Mary and Arthur Pritchard, and her sister Virginia Lee Meffert. Funeral services will be held Monday, November 29, 2010, at 9:00 am at the Old Post Chapel, Ft. Myer, VA, and interment follows at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington or a charity of choice.