Martha M. Williams

Martha Moore Williams was born Martha Rae Moore in Farmer’s Valley, Pennsylvania on April 18, 1928 to Guy Louis Moore and Mary Steinhauer. She had three sisters, Mollie, Verna and Doris, who all predeceased her. She attended Bradford Senior High School where she played the saxophone in the school band and graduated in 1946. She married Albert Franklin “Bud” Williams on 8/21/1948 and they had four children; three daughters who were born in Bradford, Pennsylvania: Mollie Kay Williams (Smilie), born 8/11/1949, Penny Louise Williams (Owings), born 7/5/1951, Candi Rae Williams (Holmberg), born 3/17/1956 and a son: Guy James Willliams, born 6/1/1960 in Denver, Colorado after the couple had relocated there due to Bud’s job with Forest Oil Corporation.  They purchased a home on Eaton Street in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, where they lived until Bud’s death.

While her husband served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean Conflict, Martha kept the family together working as a homemaker and holding down several jobs in the Bradford area. After moving to Denver, she worked as a bookkeeper and secretary for various companies, including the Dow Fonda Company and Tepper Plumbing Company, and later became the Personnel Director for the Wilfley Corporation in Greenwood Village, Colorado, a company that manufactured industrial pumps.  She studied computers at Red Rocks Community College and enjoyed travel, attending theater, classical music, mystery books, movies, water aerobics, pets and family events.

Martha and her husband were active in the City of Wheat Ridge and served on the Wheat Ridge Parks Commission, helped organize the annual Carnation Festival, and dabbled in local politics as members of the Jefferson County Republican Party. Bud and Martha were members of the American Legion and the Elks Club, and enjoyed socializing with other members. While on assignment overseas, Bud was able to bring Martha and Guy to Aberdeen, Scotland for the summer, where they made several lasting friendships.

After Bud Williams died on 3/24/2011, Martha sold the family home and moved into the Wheat Ridge Town Center Apartments where she made many new friends and enjoyed her retirement engaging in heated Scrabble games with her dear companion James S. Peters.  Jim predeceased her on 12/8/2023. Martha died on 12/22/2023 at the age of 95 at the Oberon House assisted living facility in Arvada, Colorado.

Martha was preceded in death by her three daughters (Mollie, Penny, and Candi), and survived by her son Guy, her daughter-in-law Psyche Schnelker, her sons-in-law Michael Smilie, Mike Owings and Tom Holmberg, grandchildren Erik Arthur, Brian Owings and Kimberly (Owings) Fleischman, sisters-in-law Marilyn Gallagher, Sandy Overby and Colleen Williams, nine great-grandchildren and her extended family.