Richard Lee Williams

   Richard Lee Williams, age 66, passed away at home in Tanner Williams, Alabama surrounded by family on Saturday, June 22, 2024, after a three-and-a-half-year battle with cancer during which time he kept his faith and his only complaint was that he might have to leave his family. 

   Richard was preceded in death by his father, Herman Lee Williams, and his sister, Kathy Williams Sellers. 

   He is survived by his wife, Donna Byrd Williams, three daughters, Melissa Amelia Williams, Lindsey Caroline Williams, and Lundy Williams Nelson (Chris), mother, Ramona Ruth Williams, sister, Karen Williams Chambless (Steve), and numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

   Richard was born on May 25, 1958, in Mobile, Alabama. He grew up in the Tanner Williams community and was baptized as an infant in the Tanner Williams United Methodist Church. He attended Tanner Williams Elementary, Semmes Middle, and Mary G. Montgomery High schools where he served as President of the MGM Chapter of the Future Farmers of America, received the Outstanding Senior Award in Horticulture, and graduated in 1976. He attended the University of South Alabama. 

   Richard and Donna were married May 1, 1982, and lived in Mobile for one year before moving to the Tanner Williams community. Richard made a profession of faith and was baptized in the Baptist Church and was ordained as a Deacon by the Trinity Baptist Church in Tanner Williams in 1985. He has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Wilmer since 1987.

   He worked at International Paper BMD and McEwen Lumber Company at Brookley Field before becoming an OTR owner/operator with his semi-truck. He later worked for Quick Shot Trucking until his retirement. 

   Richard enjoyed being busy, whether it was yard work, hunting, gardening, growing gourds and palm trees, teaching his baby girls to farm, hunt, change a tire and be self-sufficient, golf cart rides on his land, “fixing” anything and everything, creating and building all of “Donna’s projects,” and anything his mother needed; but what he enjoyed the most was spending time on the tractor on the land he grew up on and loved so much, and of all the places he traveled, he would still say “there’s no place like home.”

   Richard’s family is heartbroken by his loss, but assured that because of his profession of faith, this journey has now had a victorious ending.

   Visitation will be held Friday, June 28, 2024, from 11:00 A.M. until the time of service at 1:00 P.M., at the First Baptist Church of Wilmer. The burial will be in the Williams Cemetery in Tanner Williams.

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