Jacquelyn Clarkson Williams

Born in Quincy, FL, she was the daughter of the late John Montgomery Clarkson and Carrie Taylor Clarkson. She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in Textile Science in 1953 where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority.

Jackie married the love of her life, Franklin Pierce Williams, Jr, (Pierce) shortly after graduation from college in Raleigh, NC, and then spent 2 years on the West Coast during his US Navy service. They then moved to Perth Amboy, NJ, where Frank and Marcia were born. Then to Jacksonville, FL, and finally to Greenville, SC, where John Clarkson and Taylor were born.

She was a devoted wife and spent countless hours supporting her children with all their activities and aspirations. While raising four children and countless cats, Jackie found time to help establish one of the largest costume companies in the southeast, Costume Associates. This enterprise provided an outlet for her seamstress skills and her desire to broaden the variety of people she would come in contact with - she was always fascinated by the wide range of personalities in the world. Jackie also explored new ways to travel, for a while pedaling her tricycle to the local Winn Dixie…until Pierce bought her a bright red refurbished Karman Ghia. Jackie will also be remembered for her love of the three c’s: chapeau (hats), capes, and corgis. She and Pierce had many wonderful friends in Greenville and they all enjoyed playing bridge and ballroom dancing.

Jackie and Pierce were faithful members of Christ Church Episcopal in Greenville, SC. Pierce became involved in the Episcopal Ministry to Haiti when he and others engineered a unique design to pump running water from a spring at the base of a mountain up the steep rocky terrain to the displaced village of Cange, making a globally supported medical mission possible. Jackie accompanied him on trips and passed the time by teaching English and sewing lessons to people in Cange. The sewing lessons ultimately grew into a small shop where locally-made crafts were sold, with a workshop upstairs for teaching various fabric arts, painting, and whatever crafts were needed. This Artisan Center produced sheets for the hospital, school uniforms, and garments to be distributed at Christmas and Easter to the poorest in the community. Handmade stuffed animals, dolls, aprons, wall hangings and other fabric art were sold to visitors to Cange, and through Episcopal Church Women and others back in SC. The Artisan Center brought much needed employment and income to the people of Cange.

After Pierce’s death in 1997, Jackie followed her passion and moved to Haiti full-time eventually living in a small home on the Cange campus. For over 20 years she lived in solidarity with the people of Cange and, speaking their language, she served as a strong advocate for the continuation of Episcopal missions, ministries, and support. She also served as a liaison with the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina and the many parishioners who established medical clinics, agricultural partnerships, engineering projects, and the continuation of the provision of clean, running water that sustains them all.

Her various gifts to that community are too numerous to list -- from the English lessons which continued along with the sewing, to picking up every stray piece of trash along the way wherever she walked, to the countless tours of the medical mission facility she gave to visiting groups. Jackie sang in the choir and supported the church’s music program, including the donation of her own grand piano. With her southern charm, she coerced teams of visiting doctors to spend time after a busy day in the clinic neutering the community stray dogs that reproduced by leaps and bounds, and she assisted the doctors by doing bedpan duty 24 hours a day when patients began arriving for triage after the 2010 earthquake. Jackie sponsored the education of local students, provided clean bathrooms and a cold Prestige beer to visitors in her garden, and that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface. For everyone who met her, she was a true friend and a wonderful companion.

Jackie was honored at Christ Church Episcopal in Greenville, SC in June of 2019 with an award in recognition of extraordinary ministry to the people of Haiti.

Mrs. Williams is the widow of the late Franklin Pierce Williams, Jr, who passed away in 1997. She is survived by four children, Franklin P Williams III (Leslie) of Camden, SC, Marcia W. Cash (Richard) of Piedmont, SC, John Clarkson Williams (Lisa) of Andover, MA, and Richard Taylor Williams (Caroline) of Columbia SC, as well as 15 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, and her godson Raoul Fritz Joseph of Cange, Haiti.

The family appreciates the love and care given to Mrs. Williams by her caregivers at Still Hopes for the past four and a half years. We are also grateful for the professionals at Heart of Hospice, who enabled her passage into the next life with comfort and dignity.

A memorial service will be conducted Saturday, March 11, 2023, at 11 AM at Still Hopes Chapel of The Holy Spirit in West Columbia. The family will receive friends at an onsite venue following the memorial service.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to one these charities:

Leukemia society of America https://www.lls.org/

Partners in Agriculture https://partnersinag.org/

Partners in Literacy https://www.haiti-literacy.org/

Summit Ministries http://www.summits.org/

Condolences may be sent to Marcia Williams at [email protected] or 122 Pleasant Woods Road, Piedmont, SC 29673.