Edith Williams

Edith Virginia Davies Williams was born in Fort Worth, Texas on February 26, 1925 to Joseph Speed Davies, Sr. and Lilian Colvard-Ross Davies. Spending most of her life in Fort Worth, Edith studied music as a child and became an accomplished organist. She performed at such places as Casa Mariana, the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo, First National Bank during the Christmas season, and many country clubs in the D/FW area, as part of the Jim Oliver Trio. It was as a member of that trio that she met her husband, Leo G. Williams, Sr., a longtime drummer. She and Leo spent a “two-week honeymoon” in 1967 performing in Corpus Christi at the Petroleum Club. Working with her husband from 1965 until his death in 1984, also having worked on the road as a duo, she and Leo were active in the White Settlement VFW Post 8235. Often they were found entertaining those in VFWs and VA Hospitals throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Edith continued to play for Post 8235 until moving to Tyler and Rosewood Estates in the fall of 2006, to be nearer her daughter, Lynda Marie Barron. As district musician for the VFW, she was honored for 15 years of service.

Having retired from her “day job” in 1980, Edith spent some early years during her 30-year career with the U.S. Attorney’s Office as a clerk in Washington, D.C. working at the Pentagon. Her love of history and genealogy having become more prominent in later years, she decided to finish what she had begun in 1942 at North Texas State Teachers College. At age 57, having successfully pursued these interests at Texas Christian University, Edith graduated with honors in 1984 with a degree in history/archival studies and was inducted into the Phi Alpha Theta national honor sorority. A lifelong dream had been fulfilled, and she became a longtime member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Six Flags Chapter, and United Daughters of the Confederacy. She was one of the original members of Unity Church of Fort Worth until her move to Tyler.

She continued to play beautiful music until November 2018, and was a life member of Local 72, A.F.M. She went home to be with her Lord on February 19, 2019. Her son, John Patrick Edelkamp, predeceased her in 2015, as had stepson Leo G. Williams, Jr., years earlier. She leaves behind her daughter and son-in-law Jerald Martin Barron, brother Joseph Speed Davies, Jr., and wife Eva of Bethesda, MD, stepsons Billy and Bobby Williams of Granbury, and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.