She grew up on a dairy farm in Lathrop, Missouri, and graduated from Lathrop High School in 1966. She moved to Kansas City and quickly fell in love with a persistent suitor, Harry Cole Williams of Kansas City. They married in 1968 and started their family soon after moving into their first and only home in Gladstone, Missouri.
She was a loving and caring wife for 53 years and a devoted mother of her two sons, Jim and Joe. She balanced raising her family, part-time jobs as a hair-dresser and later an office manager at Midwest Bolt, and volunteer work at St. Charles Borromeo Parish School and Church. Friends knew Mary Jane was a caring and prayerful friend who baked, decorated cakes and kept a happy, welcoming home.
Mary Jane was a devoted Catholic and said the rosary with her husband Harry nearly every day. Their marriage encounter group met regularly for over 50 years. She loved her sons greatly, their spouses and her five grandchildren profusely spending weekends and summers planning visits, home-cooked meals and travel trips to be with them as often as she could.
Due to the onset of Lewy Bodies dementia, Mary Jane had to move into a memory care unit in November of 2020, where Harry visited her twice a day to help her with her meals and spend time with her. She passed away peacefully early Saturday morning, December 4, 2021, under the care of attentive care givers.
She is survived by her husband, Harry Williams, sons Jim Williams (Meredith Yeager Williams) of Kansas City, Missouri; Joe Williams (Kimberly Shepherd Williams) of Franktown, Colorado; and grandchildren Nick Williams (Elizabeth Peterson Williams) Cait, Lacy, Sean and David Williams.
Funeral Mass can be viewed online through these links, https://www.youtube.com/stcharlesborromeoparishkansascity
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