Lee Vaughn Williams Jr.

1927 - 2014

Lee Vaughn Williams Jr., retired corporate attorney and senior executive with Sammons Enterprises Inc., headquartered in Dallas, died Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014. Service: Visitation will be 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at Thompson's Harveson & Cole. Private family services will follow. Memorials: YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth, 512 Lamar, Fort Worth, Texas 76102. Lee Vaughn Williams Jr. was born Aug. 1, 1927, in Lorena to Lee Vaughn Sr. and Lillian Provine Williams. He earned both business and law degrees from SMU and also played basketball for Rice in 1945 and 1946 in the Southwest Conference championship. Lee spent his working career in Dallas with Sammons Enterprises, a $27 billion conglomerate of insurance, hotel, industrial and cable companies where he played a key policymaking role with the company. Lee had a love of wildlife and the outdoors, and enjoyed relaxing on the scenic ranch he bought near Glen Rose in the early 1960s. After assembling a beautiful collection of exotic game animals, he named his beloved spread the Waterfall Ranch. Subsequent owners renamed it the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, and the same wide variety of species can still be seen there today. He also was an avid hunter in Alaska, Mexico, Texas and the Rockies. Lee was a member of Dallas Country Club and River Crest Country Club. He and Ruth enjoyed traveling all over the world and the La Fonda in Santa Fe was their second home. Lee was preceded in death by his son, Cove Anderson. Survivors: His wife of 42 years, Ruth; sons, Lee Williams, Charles Williams, Bruce Williams and Brian Williams and his wife, Kim; daughters, Elaine Meyers and her husband, David, and Kay Genua and her husband, Nick; and grandchildren, Jason Williams, Brent Williams, Addison Williams, Hana Williams, Meredith Williams, Blake Williams, Kathryn Williams, Lexi Anderson, Ingrid Anderson, Riley Genua, Harrison Genua, Mary Williams, Grace Williams, Lila Williams and new twins, Brian Elliot II and Annabelle Williams.