Colleen Williams

1943 - 2021

Colleen Williams
April 7, 1943 - May 21, 2021
Carlsbad
Colleen knew a life well-loved was a life well-lived. The first child to Tom and Cheryl Horne, Colleen was born in the spring of 1943 in San Pedro. When her brother Larry was brought home, the prospect of sharing her parents was so upsetting that she crashed her tricycle in protest. They spent their adolescence eating eclairs after church, running wild with cousins, and riding the city bus to the beach. In her senior year of high school, her family welcomed her second brother Greg. After graduating, Colleen enrolled at El Camino where she met her first husband, Joe Bowen. Her little brother Greg grew up alongside Colleen's three tow-headed and mischievous children, Monique, Jason, and Todd. She was a tender-hearted and thoughtful mother, always quick to laugh. After her marriage ended she was determined to provide for her family, and finished her education at California State University, Long Beach. She had little means, but was resourceful, and you could find her in the school bookstore studying from the textbooks she couldn't afford to buy. On the beach of Belmont Shore, Colleen was re-introduced to Dennis Williams, a friend of her brother Larry. Dennis had already been admiring Colleen for over a decade. He says she was the most beautiful girl at Hawthorne High School and he is right. Little did she know Dennis would be the love of her life and her partner for 42 years. Colleen and Dennis married and both became cherished schoolteachers in the Vista School District. They spent their careers swapping stories from the classroom and adventuring on school breaks, from fishing in Alaska to backpacking the John Muir Trail to snorkeling in Hawaii. These trips were just the beginning and after they retired their adventures really beganthey saw the whole world together, hand in hand. The most beautiful destination in all her travels was the Sierra Nevadas, she said, where she felt closest to God. A lifelong learner, enlightened from her explorations, Colleen was always open-minded and never stopped evolving. She practiced yoga for 20 years, attended courses at Mira Costa, and took up watercolor painting. She participated in a dinner group, bible studies, book clubs, and philanthropy. She walked the beach with friends new and old. She left us all filled with gratitude and countless special memories. And what is remembered, lives. She is survived by her husband Dennis Williams, her brothers Larry Horne (wife Jan) and Greg Horne (wife Katie), her children Monique Bowen, Jason Bowen, and Todd Bowen (wife Julie), grandchildren Chelsea Girimonte, James Bowen, and Michaela Bowen, and great-grandchild Eliot Girimonte. Plans for a celebration of her life are forthcoming.