Perry Mae (Darby) Williams

Perry Mae Darby Williams passed away peacefully after a brief illness on Thursday, January 19, 2023, in Englewood Health Care Center in Monroeville, Alabama, at the age of 93.  She was a resident of Owassa, Alabama, most of her life.  
 

She was born May 11, 1929, in Owassa and is preceded in death by her parents, Perry Neal Darby and Dealie Diamond Darby, and four older sisters, Jewel Darby Deal, Hazel Darby Sowell, Maxine Darby Steindorff and Laurice Darby Kern. 
 

Her husband of 63 years, King Edsel Williams, preceded her in death in 2015.  She is survived by her son, King Edsel Williams Jr., of Auburn, Alabama, and daughter, Susan Williams (Sid) Chapman of Monroeville, two grandchildren, Matt Chapman of Portland, Oregon, and Lauren (Chris) Hadley of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and two great-grandchildren, Cooper and Abby Grace and numerous nieces and nephews.
 

She was an active member of Olive Branch Baptist Church in Owassa until the declining health of her husband and herself.
 

Perry enjoyed cooking, gardening, and arranging flowers, and she loved taking flower arrangements to the church sanctuary each Sunday, and decorating the graves of family members in the cemetery.  Most of all, she loved and enjoyed her family. She was a godly and generous Christian woman who loved people.
 

After graduating from Evergreen High School, Perry worked in the probate office in the Conecuh County Courthouse.  One day a recent Auburn University engineering graduate and World War II veteran from Oxford, Alabama, Edsel Williams, who had recently moved to Evergreen, came in the probate office to purchase a license tag and he asked her out.  They married the following year in 1952.  For many years, both of them worked at Southern Coach Manufacturing Company (later Flexible Southern) in Evergreen.
 

In the 1980s, they lived in Talladega, Alabama, for nine years, where she served on the office staff at the Talladega County Extension Service. Perry enjoyed sharing her favorite recipes and bringing dishes to the office to share with her co-workers.
 

She had many interests, but most of all she loved spending time with her husband, children and four sisters and friends 
 

A visitation will be held for family and friends at Cope Keahey Funeral Home Chapel Sunday, Jan. 22 at 2 p.m, followed by a graveside service at 3pm.,  in the Olive Branch Baptist Church cemetery.  Rev. Herbert Brown will officiate, and Cope Keahey Funeral Home wlll direct.

Because of Perry's love of flowers, the family welcomes flowers, and contributions may be made to one’s favorite charity in her memory.

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