Elizabeth Williams
Born In: Sydney Mines
Born: November 19th, 1906
Passed in: Sydney Mines
Passed on: November 1st, 2013
With sadness we announce the passing of Elizabeth Williams on Friday, Nov. 1, 2013, at Northside General Hospital, following a brief illness.
Born in Sydney Mines on Nov. 19, 1906, Elizabeth was the daughter of Frederick and Eva (Hiscox) Williams.
She was an artist, world traveller and joyful, creative spirit — an inspiration to all who knew her. A graduate of the Victoria School of Art (now NSCAD University) she worked as a commercial artist in Quebec City and Toronto before embarking on a teaching career. After graduating from Normal School in Truro and teaching in Cascapedia and Sweetsburg, Quebec, she served with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in England and Belgium
during the Second World War and on returning home joined the Halifax City Schools newly formed art department, teaching and inspiring hundreds of young people.
A nature lover and fierce advocate for the environment, on her retirement she returned to Sydney Mines where she continued to inspire family, friends and neighbours with her uplifting spirit and inquiring mind, and her way of living each day in appreciation of and wonder at the natural world’s magnificence. Elizabeth loved flowers, trees, art, music, books and especially verse, and exercised her astonishing memory up to the very end of her life by reciting the poetry she so loved.
Left to mourn her passing are her sister Ruth Savage of Dundas, Ont., her devoted nephew Robert McGrath who enabled her to live
independently in her harbourside home up until her illness, her nieces, Carol (of Halifax) and Joan Bruneau (Lunenburg), Marion Tucker and Trish Zahara (Hamilton, Ont.), Ann MacDonald (Truro) and Eva Lantz (Olney, Illinois), nephews, Fred and Jeff Williams (Sarnia, Ont.), and great-nephews, Andrew, Seamus and Angus Erskine, Thomas and George Zahara, Jason MacDonald and great-nieces, Cari Gray, Samantha and Amanda Williams and all of their partners and extended families.
Besides her parents, Elizabeth was predeceased by her sisters, Dorothy McGrath, Marion Bruneau and Edith Hennigar, and brothers, Fredrick, Albert, Charles and John.
Many thanks to all Elizabeth’s dear friends and neighbours for their kindness over the years, and to Dr. Kohlsmith and the nurses at
Northside General for their compassionate care.
Cremation has taken place. There will be a memorial service at Trinity Anglican Church and interment in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Shore Road, at a later date.
Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Francis Funeral Home, Sydney Mines.
Donations in memoriam may be made to CNIB or a charity of one’s choice.
Expressions of sympathy may be directed to Elizabeth’s family by visiting www.francisfuneralhome.ca.
