Online Archives

Lyda D. Williams, 102, surviving spouse of the late Rev. Robert M. Williams, died Dec. 8, in Silver Spring. The Rev. Louis Shockley led graveside services Dec. 12, at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland.

Lyda Williams married the Rev. Robert Williams in 1937 after his first wife died while he served Asbury UMC in Washington, D.C., from 1931 to 1955. They had no children. He died in 1956, a year after he?d become a district superintendent in the Washington Conference.

Williams retired from government work and after her husband?s death she moved to what is now Asbury Village in Gaithersburg and stayed there until three years ago when she moved into a nursing home in Silver Spring.

The only survivors are four cousins, including Ruth Booth of Hampton, Va. and her husband the Rev. William Booth; and a step-son, retired Dr. Emerson Williams, a member of Asbury UMC in Washington, D.C. She is also survived by her caregivers, Grace and Lazarus Rasanayagam.

Condolences may be sent to Rev. and Mrs. William Booth, 218 Syms St., Hampton, VA 23669.