Marguerite Williams’ legacy recalled on her 100th birthday

Published 1:08 pm Monday, October 30, 2017

Submitted photoMarguerite Neel Williams at the Thomasville Center for the Arts, previously East Side School.

THOMASVILLE — People who knew Marguerite Neel Williams possess memories of a woman of all seasons — from her exquisite taste and passionate heart to a love of politics and historic preservation.

Today would have been her 100th birthday, and some who knew her recalled memories of a woman who did much to make Thomasville the bright star it is among the nation’s small towns. 

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Her daughter, Diane Parker, a Thomasville resident, is glad her mother was from Thomasville. Had Mrs. Williams not been, her daughter said, she would not know about the city.

“Often the response is, ‘We’re glad your mother was born here, too,’ ” Parker said.

Marguerite Neel was born in Thomasville on Oct. 31, 1917, the youngest of four children born to Lee and Ethel Flowers Neel. She attended Thomasville’s public schools and completed two years at Duke University, where she met Thomas Lyle Williams Jr., of Morganfield, Kentucky. They married on April 3, 1936, and moved to Chicago, where Mr. Williams ran the family business. After Mr. Williams retired in 1969, they returned to Thomasville.

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Mrs. Williams was a member of Thomasville Landmarks and founded several groups dedicated to preservation, including the Thomasville Genealogical History and Fine Arts Library, the Thomasville Cultural Center and on the statewide level, she was a founding trustee of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. She spearheaded many preservation efforts in Thomasville, including acquisition of the Lapham-Patterson House a state-owned historic site, installation of the highly successful Main Street program that transformed the downtown business district, conversion of East Side School into a community cultural center, and rehabilitation of a circa 1915 post office as the home of the Thomasville Genealogical, History, and Fine Arts Library.

She also was responsible for establishment of many organizations that positively impact the lives of children in Thomas County, including Thomasville Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and Thomasville Cultural Center. She also started the Thomasville Antiques Show Foundation, which has provided funds to programs benefitting children in Thomas County each year since the 1980s.

Mrs. Williams was instrumental in establishing the Boys and Girls Club of Thomasville. The Boys and Girls Club board voted to name the club in her honor.

Mrs. Williams received many awards during her lifetime: the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s highest honor, the Louise duPont Crowninshield Award in 1997; Thomas County’s Woman of the Year in 1976; and an honorary Doctorate of Humanity from Florida State University in 1991.

After her death, the state of Georgia established the Marguerite Neel Williams Memorial Highway on a portion of Highway 19 in Thomas County.

Mrs. Williams was a longtime member of the Georgia Historical Society, having joined as a life member in 1972. She served on the Society’s Board of Curators from 1973 to 1976.

She died in May 1999, at age 81, and is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Thomasville. Her husband, Thomas, died on Jan. 24, 1978, at age 65.

Mrs. Williams was posthumously inducted as one of the first two modern Georgia Trustees by CBS and the Office of the Governor in 2008.

Tommy Williams, Mrs. Williams’ son, died in 2009.

Tommy Vann, a longtime Thomasville lawyer who now makes his home in North Carolina, described Mrs. Williams as “an all-star on an all-star team.”

“She was a member of an extraordinary generation,” Vann said. “She was a shining star among her peers.”

Vann recalled Mrs. Williams’ business acuity, her passionate heart and that she was laser-focused” on goals.

At the mention of “Marguerite,” people in the governor’s office and the White House knew who she was, Vann said.

“Perhaps the greatest achievement a person can have in their life is to create a legacy that lives on beyond the person,” said Mary Lawrence Lang, Thomasville Landmarks Inc. director. “Marguerite did just that. When she returned to Thomasville in the late 1960s, she immediately entrenched herself in Thomasville Landmarks, which at the time was a fledgling grassroots organization building momentum for the historic preservation movement locally.” 

Lang said Williams became the driving force behind many notable preservation success stories that soon earned Landmarks a national reputation.

“She was a woman of means and influence whose passion for preserving history and beauty was magnetic. When she spoke, people listened and followed her lead,” Lang said. “More often than not, she took satisfaction in the accomplishment rather than credit, but it was Marguerite who led the charge in saving Thomasville’s Tockwotton Historic District from crass redevelopment, rehabilitating the iconic Lapham-Patterson house, establishing Thomasville as a Main Street City, and restoring the East Side School, now the Center for the Arts. In 1987, Landmarks established an award in her name, the organization’s highest honor for preservationists in Thomas County.” 

Rick Ivey said that when he looks around the community and sees the many things and organizations that make Thomasville unique and special, it is because of “the lasting legacy of Marguerite Williams.”

“Some of those things — like the Center for the Arts, the Genealogical Library and the Boys & Girls Clubs, for example — she was personally and directly responsible for. Others, like Archbold Memorial Hospital and Thomasville Landmarks, predated her return to Thomasville, but she worked to make them stronger and better for her involvement, her advocacy and her support,” said Ivey, Archbold vice president for public affairs.

He described Mrs. Williams “a good friend” with whom he collaborated on a number of projects and ideas. 

Many of Mrs. Williams’ efforts were done quietly, Ivey said.

“Thankfully, her impact our community — and certainly well beyond our county line — lives on through the Williams Family Foundation of Georgia and the legacy of giving and service she instilled in her children and grandchildren,” he said. “I suspect Thomasville and Thomas County will be reaping the benefits of Marguerite Williams’ life when people are marking her 200th birthday.”

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820