IN REMEMBRANCE OF VERNELL DORIS GRAY WILLIAMS

Born May 30, 1923   Passed Tuesday November 30, 2021, at 1:07 pm.; she was 98 years old.

Vernell was born May 30, 1923 in Shelby County, Texas to the late Jimmel Gray and Lizzie Moseley Gray.  She was married to Willie "Mott" Williams for 55 years who preceded her in death in 1997.  They had one child Melba Jewell Williams(Tyler, TX) and she has two remaining sisters Evon Johnson(Elk City, OK), Virginia Anderson(Wellington, TX).  She was preceded in death by her parents Jimmel Gray and Lizzie Anderson, brothers Clarence Gray, Woodrow Gray, James Gray, Willis Gray, Robert Anderson, Curtis Anderson; sisters Ceter Bell Kellum, Voncil Hunt.

She is survived by numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

Vernell was raised on her father's country farm in Shelby County along with her 4 brothers and her late cousin Elijah.  Her father Jimmel was the first black man in the community they lived in to buy and own a Model T.

While living in Teneha, Texas she met and married Mott.  She and Mott lived in Teneha, Texas; Center, Texas and Timpson, Texas before moving to Tyler, Texas in 1952.

In Teneha she and Mott worked for the millionaire oilman  T.A. Carlton, they followed the Carlton Family to Tyler, where they continued to work for the family.

Later on she worked for LulaBell Beard at her shop "The Broadway Junior and Senior Shop" located in downtown Tyler and she also worked privately for LulaBell and her husband Judge Craven Beard.  She continued to do private home work up until starting at Green Acres Baptist Church where she worked in the kitchen as a cook for numerous years, alongside Mott who also worked at the church until he retired in his 70's.  After leaving Green Acres she continued to do private home work and assisted Doris Lowery with her catering business.

She was a member of Bethlehem First Baptist Church in Tyler where she served on the missionary board and pastors anniversary board.

Vernell loved to do yard work and could be seen often working in her front yard.  She enjoyed fishing, sewing, doing upholstery work and  a little carpenter work around the house as well, along with canning( vegetables, making jelly, pear preserves and vegetable soup), growing ivy and working in her backyard garden.  In the summers and on weekends she would visit family in Timpson and Teneha, Texas who always looked forward to seeing her.  She would accompany Mott on visits to Louisiana to see his relatives.

She loved to watch wrestling and westerns on tv and she had a high dislike for the Dallas Cowboys football team.  Her favorite gospel singer was Mahalia Jackson.  She would do what she could to help out her family members. She collected for The March Of Dimes Organization.

Whenever you would see her out and about, Melba would always be by her side the majority of the time. Family members looked forward to visiting her because they knew she would always have something cooked ready to eat.  They loved her cooking, especially her turnip and collard greens, roast, cakes and pies.