WILLIAMS, Doone Hughes Beloved Friend, Mother and Grandmother Died peacefully at the age of 92 on August 27, 2018 after a short illness. She was cared for at home by her son Kevin and spent the last two days of her life at the beautiful Pat Roche Hospice Home. Doone was an extraordinary woman who loved life and people, and drank every experience to the lees. Her roaring intellect and boundless curiosity were only matched by the size of her heart and her great warmth. She was a great listener and a better story teller. "Lorna" Doone was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, to a gracious, quiet Southern lady and talented gardener, Ada Vaughan Hughes and to a yoga-practicing petroleum geologist, Urban Becker Hughes, who shared his daughter's intellect and warmth. Doone was raised in Laurel, Mississippi. There she would often sneak out and play checkers with local wrongdoers through the bars of the local jail or spend hours perched in a tree playing pirates or reading. Her dear childhood friend "Millie" Mildred Lucas Stevens Edwards said Doone was not afraid of anything. In fact, her godparents, Jim and Lorna Leavell, sent eight-year-old Lorna Doone out each morning to shoot poisonous water moccasins sunning themselves on the walks of their Ocean Springs, Mississippi, home, "Doonegate". There, she met painter Walter Anderson, and passed many hours on the Gulf Coast sand dunes, permitted to watch him paint as long as she did not talk too much. Doone was childhood friends with opera singer Leontyne Price, and both music and theater were a major part of her childhood. Doone thrived despite the Great Depression and World War II, spending a formative college summer in Cuba attending classes in Havana while living in former Nazi headquarters. Doone sang classical music, delved in to theater and history, and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College with a masters degree in history. She then moved to New Orleans, working in an antiquarian book shop. Having grown up in the "Jim Crow" South and repelled by racism, Doone fled North to New York City, where she worked in publishing. In Manhattan she attended cocktail parties with Jackson Pollock and the beatniks. She and her friends rented a hall above a liquor store, sleeping in the dressing rooms, and made rent each month with parties featuring kegs of beer and a live band. Considered a spinster in Laurel, at age 27 she married Greer Williams. A former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, he wrote for the Pentagon during World War II and became a prominent medical writer. After living in Washington, DC, and Chicago, the couple settled in Hingham, Massachusetts. Visitors and long-term guests from England, Africa and Sweden streamed through their rambling Crow Point home overlooking Hingham Bay. The 70s were a particularly lively time. Doone wore clothing sewn up from Marimekko bed sheets and welcomed her elder children's hippie friends. She was a great cook, equally adept at following complex recipes and cooking from scratch, and her Christmas Eve party was legendary. A talented artist, Doone baked 70s-style Christmas ornaments, created figural sculptures from weather stripping, hammered together driftwood sculptures and made large, elaborate word collages. Doone worked in editing, health program writing and directing, and mental health. She helped found the Amego School, a program for children with Autism. She traveled to Haiti, hoping to become an art dealer, until those trips became too dangerous. Doone was a devoted and protective mother and grandmother, making many sacrifices for her children and grandchild. She saw them through challenges including severe childhood illness, life-threatening allergies and daughter Deb's long battle with Parkinson's disease. She loved nature and animals, and a parade of cats enriched the life of her family, the favorite being Bearcat. She loved to travel, visiting Turkey, Calgary, Mexico, Japan, Italy, England and the American Southwest, among other destinations. Doone adored the written word. She lived surrounded by books and subscribed to three papers and many magazines. She had a strong sense of justice, was a friend of Bill, Hillary and Barack, and became a CNN junkie in her later years. Doone was larger than life and is missed terribly by her family and an astonishingly large circle of friends, several of whom considered her to be a second mother. She was predeceased by her husband, Greer Williams, and is survived by her children, Deb Williams of Kingsland, Texas; Kevin G. Williams of Hingham; and Julie Williams of Marble Falls, Texas and Hingham; as well as grandson Kevin Hill-Williams of North Adams, Massachusetts, and Kevin's father, Nick Hill of Needham, Massachusetts. She is missed by cousin Ann Merriman and her partner Kevin Hollis of Rockland, Massachusetts; cousins Wynne and Heather Hathaway of Weston, Massachusetts; cousin Misti Martin of Reno, Nevada; Betty Jo Austin of Dallas, Texas, as well as Betty Jo's three grown children. Please join us in Celebrating Doone's Life at 11 a.m. on October 19, 2019, at Old Ship Church, 107 Main St., Hingham. Lunch and remembrances will follow immediately at the parish house across the street. Please bring a song, poem or story of Doone to share. Memorial donations may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center or The Pat Roche Hospice Home.
View the online memorial for Doone Hughes WILLIAMSPublished by Boston Globe from Sep. 27 to Oct. 6, 2019.
