ROCHELLE — Born at home on the family farm outside Wesley, Iowa, on Aug. 27,1924, Lillian Ellen (Schrauth) Williams died peacefully on April 1, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic while the world kept in touch via the Internet. Daughter of Bernard and Ruth Schrauth, Lil was the middle of five children; sisters Barbara and Katherine and brother Paul preceded her in death and younger brother Bernard survives her.

Not wanting to be left at home when her older brother and sister headed off, Lil started school at age 4; the teacher told her mother, “Don’t worry; she’ll get tired of it in a few weeks.” She graduated from high school shortly before she turned 16. She recalls being tormented by the big boys at the one room school house she attended and said that more than once she was hung on a hook in the cloakroom and left to yell for help. She also struggled as a farm girl and remembered being unable to milk a cow, her mother sending her off to “Find chores you can actually do!”

She did, however, earn a teaching degree from Northern Iowa State Teachers College when few women attended college, and she went on to teach as a primary school teacher for two years but that career was short lived. She met Dave Williams on a blind date while he was attending junior college in nearby Britt, Iowa; they both were initially matched with the other date but somehow ended up together and thus a love affair that lasted almost 70 years began. They were married on Dec. 28, 1944 in Lincoln, Nebraska, while Dave was in training in the Army Air Corps as a B-24 pilot.

Following the war, the couple moved to Ames, Iowa, where Dave finished his degree at Iowa State University; the couple then settled in Rochelle, where he began his lifelong career with Del Monte. Lil ran a growing household of five kids. Her talents were those of a mid 20th century homemaker: she was a fabulous cook (famous for her Christmas divinity), kept an immaculate home, and wrangled all five kids, clean and neatly dressed, for school and to church on Sundays. In her extra time Lil was a Campfire Girls and a Cub Scout leader. After the kids grew, she worked as a teacher’s aide at the preschool at First Presbyterian Church and volunteered for the Rochelle Hospital Auxiliary.

Starting in 1994 Dave and Lil began the tradition of gathering the family together in places from Florida to Illinois to Mexico. The already close family bonds tightened especially in the younger generations and all are committed to continuing this tradition

In 1986 Dave and Lil purchased a condo in Bradenton where they wintered for a while before eventually moving to become Florida residents in 1998. They spent summers visiting their children in Virginia, Utah, and Missouri as well as enjoying time with family and friends at “home" in Rochelle. In 2011 they moved back to Rochelle to be closer to family, especially son Brent, and lived at San Gabriel Assisted Living Center. Dave got Lil settled there before he passed away in late 2011. We believe that he welcomed her into heaven accompanied by their granddaughter, Beth.

Lil — mother, grandmother, great-grandmother — will be missed by her children, Nancy (Robert, dec) Menchhofer of Chesterfield, Missouri, David (Audrey) Williams of Halifax, Virginia, Patricia (John) Lee of San Francisco, California, Brent (Ronna) Williams of Rochelle, and Marcia (Perry) Needham of Park City, Utah. Also by her grandchildren Kelly, Amy, Matt, DJ, Sara, Tyler and Trevor and her great-grandchildren Lily, Sofia, Andy, Nico, Kaitlyn, Brooklyn, Jeremiah, Jillian, Josie, Brycen and Jace.

A memorial service will be held later in the year when travel is safe and possible and the family can again gather to tell stories and share laughs and tears.

In lieu of flowers the family has suggested donations be made to either The Kitchen Table (7034 S. Klondike Road, Rochelle, IL 61068) or Serenity Hospice and Home (1658 S. Illinois Route 2, Oregon, IL 61061). 

Please visit www.ungerhorner.com to sign the online guest book.