Mary Williams’ paintings were a direct reflection of her bold, vibrant personality. Her colors were as true as her feelings toward you, friends and family said.
“She understood, color,” said Caroline Budd, a friend who owns a framing shop in Atlanta. “She understood, to make a good painting, you didn’t have to water down anything, the same way she didn’t water down life.”
Mrs. Williams didn’t begin painting until her two daughters had gone off to college, but she took to it and poured herself into her art.
“She did it because she loved it,” Ms. Budd said. “And it pleased her to no end that other people wanted her work.”
Mary Carolyn Brock Williams, of Atlanta, died Sunday at her residence of natural causes. She was 91.
A funeral service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Northside Drive Baptist Church. Burial will follow at Arlington Memorial Park. H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill, is in charge of arrangements.
Mary Brock was born in Roopville, approximately 10 miles southwest of Carrollton, but her family moved to Atlanta when she was young. A graduate of Atlanta Girls High School, she went to Agnes Scott College and majored in psychology, her daughter said. While working for the Coca-Cola Co., as an executive assistant, she met James Fennell Williams, who had recently returned from World War II. The two married in 1946 and were married for 63 years when he died in 2010.
Mrs. Williams was a full-time homemaker while her daughters were growing up, always putting her artistic touch on things around the house, her daughter said.
“She was really great with flower arranging,” said Carolyn Williams, a daughter who lives in Princeton, N.J. “I remember flowers and arrangements around the house all of the time.”
It was after both daughters had gone to college, that Mr. Williams gave his wife the gift that, literally, kept on giving: He purchased art classes for her at the High Museum. In the early '70s, Mrs. Williams’ inner artist came out in a big way.
“Mary was very direct, and there was very little subtlety, and her art was very much like that,” Ms. Budd said. "Her colors were vibrant and they really snapped. She wasn’t trying to do a sweet impressionistic thing.”
Stratton Pritchard of Atlanta said he was amazed at what his cousin could do with watercolors.
“I can’t say enough about how vibrant the colors are, and that is hard to achieve, in my experience with watercolors,” he said. “I would say that you always knew where you stood with her, but that is often meant negatively, and that is not how I mean it. But there was a certain clarity about her, and she was very straight-forward, just like her art.”
Mrs. Williams is also survived by a second daughter, Nancy Williams of St. Louis, Mo.; one granddaughter; and one step-grandson.
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