Mary Anne Williams, of Grand Blanc, passed away on Sept. 19, 2022 at the age of 89.
Mass of Christian Burial took place on Sept. 27 at the Church of the Holy Family.
Mary Anne Bell was born in Providence, R.I., on Sept. 8, 1933. Mary Anne attended Kenwood Academy of the Sacred Heart in Albany, N.Y. After high school, Mary Anne taught nursery school. She prayed a 54-day rosary novena for a good Catholic husband, and on the 54th day, Bill Williams went AWOL from the Air Force to propose to her. They were married on July 6, 1957 and would enjoy 64 happy years of marriage.
They lived in Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills. She dedicated herself to raising her children. At times, she would receive unwed mothers into her home to live until they got onto their feet. As the boys grew, she found time for other pursuits, including tennis and a successful home-based crafts business. She loved spending time in the family’s cottage on Nantucket. When the Legionaries of Christ Catholic priests established a youth program, Mary Anne found in them worthy allies in raising her children. She aided in the founding of Everest Academy in Clarkston and started a women’s group within the lay Regnum Christi movement. She became a spiritual director and advised over 100 women. She counseled from her own profound commitment to God and to motherhood. Mary Anne was blessed with a joyful, spontaneous, enthusiastic, others-centered soul and personality that was a pleasure to experience.
Mary Anne gave abundantly to numerous charities, including several pro-life causes.
In her later years, their home, first on Parke Lake in Clarkston and then in Grand Blanc, was a locus of enjoyment and happiness for her children and grandchildren. She lived a motherly focus in a through dedicated time of daily prayer and self-offering for her children and grandchildren. She continued this practice right up until her death, expressing how she was offering the difficulties of her ALS condition for them.
Surviving Mary Anne are her four sons, three siblings, 10 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.