Nancy Buchanan Williams

Nancy Buchanan Williams passed away on December 29th, 2025 at the age of 96. She lived longer than anyone in the Buchanan family had before her. Her longevity was a source of pride and a testament to the way she lived her life. She was the last member of the family in her generation. She was preceded in death by all of her brothers, sisters and in-laws as well as her husband Edwin who died 3 months before her. She left behind children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and a lot of wonderful memories.

Nancy Clarabell Buchanan was born in San Pedro, CA on July 20th, 1929 in the house her father, Willard Buchanan, had built when he married her mother, Gertrude Homblad Buchanan. Her father was a shipbuilder. During the Depression, whenever he was laid off at the shipyards, he would take the family camping. When people asked what her family ate during the Depression, she enjoyed telling them, "lobster and abalone", both of which her family could pick for free from the L.A. breakwater back in those days.

During high school in San Pedro, Nancy worked as an operator for the telephone company. With the money she earned from that, she put herself through nursing school at San Jose State. While in school there, she met Edwin Wallace Williams, a San Jose native who was majoring in theater after serving in the Navy at the end of World War II. They dated for 6 years and were then married for 71 years after that.

A year into their marriage, they left their jobs and went bicycling through Europe on a Youth Hostel tour. The photographs and memories of that adventure kindled a lifetime of travels together.

Before their bicycle trip, Nancy had worked at various nursing jobs including a mental hospital in the Santa Cruz mountains, an Eye Clinic in San Jose, and the Red Cross Blood Bank. When they returned from Europe, Ed and Nancy moved to Hollywood so Ed could pursue acting jobs. Nancy got a job as a nurse at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital and worked there until she became a mother.

As a mom, Nancy was very active in the Ivanhoe Elementary School PTA, serving in several positions in the association while her sons were in school there. Once her sons had both graduated from elementary school, Nancy went back into nursing and worked at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles for the rest of her career. At Children's Hospital she worked with infants, many of whom were born premature. She could start IVs on babies without making them cry by singing a Swedish lullaby from her own childhood. Nurses on other floors would ask her to start the difficult IVs for their patients. She also made fish from ribbons in her spare time and gave them to the infants who were patients on her floor. These were popular with both the infants and their families.

She celebrated a lot of birthdays in 96 years, but the one she cherished the most was her 40th which was on the same day that astronauts first walked on the Moon. That was during a family vacation in San Diego that included sailing her father's old lobster skiff on Mission Bay.

Music was a part of Nancy's life throughout the years. She learned piano as a child from the wife of the minister at the Episcopal church that her family attended in San Pedro. In later years, while raising children, she took music courses at Los Angeles City College. She regularly played the piano at home. For many years she was the church organist at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Atwater.

Although her music has now gone silent, memories of her will never dim. She spent her life being good to people. Perhaps that was the reason she lived so long and so well. In 96 years she touched a lot of lives.

For 62 of those years, she lived in the house where she had raised her children and where she enjoyed being part of the lives of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her wish was to live in that home until the end of her life. Thanks to the love and the support of her family, she got that wish.