Wayne Williams

1946 - 2019

Wayne Raymond Williams

January 18, 1946 - July 13, 2019

"I should not be withheld but that some day Into their vastness I should steal away…. "
- Robert Frost, Into My Own
In a sudden, unforeseen twist of fate, lifelong San Franciscan, Wayne Raymond Williams, passed away unexpectedly shortly after midnight on July 13. He was 73.

Lamenting Wayne's passing, the wonderfully supportive nurses and doctors at Saint Mary's Hospital, and Wayne's close friends and acquaintances had not seen Wayne's demise coming. Nor had month-long clean hospital- bedridden Wayne. "Too bad he came to the hospital so late," an emergency ward doctor said.

Wayne experienced first-hand the truths that dying time teaches us. His infirm and weak body racked with intolerable pain calling for morphine, Wayne succumbed to major complications rooted in decades-long undiagnosed and untreated diabetes. The attending nurses and doctors did their very best to bring Wayne back to his one-time God-given strength and health, but Nature inevitably took her tragic course, mercifully liberating him from his persistent pain and suffering. A visiting friend was struck with pity by Wayne's mental disorientation during his last days. Such is life, and death, when we really see it.

As a neighborhood kid and pegged-pants Roosevelt Junior High School teenager, Wayne grew up on Hayes and Clayton Streets, down the street from Saint Mary's Hospital. He was a traffic-boy leader at Andrew Jackson Elementary School, on whose "Andy" playground he would later play vigorous and fast-paced half-court basketball games. Resolutely athletic, Wayne excelled in school gymnasium rope-climbing, and was a gung-ho competitor in pocket pool and ping-pong. Wayne went on to graduate from George Washington High School and attend College. Like many San Francisco City College students, Wayne transferred to San Francisco State College by Stonestown.

As a teenager, Wayne sat transfixed by Robert Mitchum movies in the erstwhile darkened Haight Show on Haight Street, munching on a juicy take-out Glen Ell's cheeseburger. In Wayne's eyes, Thunder Road Robert Mitchum was a really cool American Hollywood actor.

As a young man, Wayne designed and made artistic jewelry for his many attractive and appreciative girl friends. To this day, they remember and respect Wayne's novel and dedicated hand crafts. With his step-father Nick Companion as a hard-working model, Wayne developed into a meticulous craftsman and house-painter putting finishing touches on countless interiors and exteriors about town, right up to the end of his life.

Because Wayne was an avid Giants baseball fan listening to games on his AM radio dial, cousin Kelly Young, son of Wayne's beloved US Air Force fighter-pilot Uncle Ray, has suggested scattering Wayne's ashes in McCovey Cove, where many home-run hits splash into the water flowing near the stadium. Wayne is loved, remembered, and respected by his many friends and acquaintances. And Wayne loved the music of little "Sweet Nothings" Brenda Lee ! "Wayne was his own man," a friend says.

Donations in Wayne's honor can be sent to the Saint Mary's Medical Center Foundation, 450 Stanyan Street, San Francisco, California 94117
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