Geneva Rountree Williams

Geneva Rountree Williams - Submitted for the USGenWeb by Richard P. Sevier 1/27/2022

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Geneva Rountree Williams - Madison Parish, Louisiana
June 15, 1925 ~ January 22, 2022 (age 96)
From Crothers-Glenwood Funeral Home Tallulah. LA January 27, 2022

Geneva Rountree Williams passed from this life into the arms of Jesus, on Friday, January 22, 2022, in Tallulah, Louisiana. One of the last Tallulah citizens of the Greatest Generation, she was born on June 15, 1925, to William Lyle and Rosalie Baird Rountree in Tallulah. She attended Tallulah Elementary and High School, graduating a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As America entered the war, she enrolled in LSU, pledging Kappa Delta sorority as her older sister Georgia had four years earlier. As her father was the owner and editor of the Madison Journal, she had grown up helping him in the newspaper office. Consequently, she chose to major in journalism. While at LSU, she worked on the student newspaper and the Lagniappe, LSU’s yearbook.

She graduated from LSU just after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, and World War II came to an end. Her future husband and high school sweetheart, Edward Webb Williams, then returned from the Pacific Theater, where he had served in the Army Air Force. He enrolled in LSU on the GI Bill majoring in agriculture. They became engaged in 1946 and were married in June of 1947. They lived in Baton Rouge, while he finished his degree in agriculture, and she worked for the Baton Rouge States Item newspaper. Upon his graduation, they moved to Mississippi where he had accepted a job as a farm manager for Whittington Farms in Leflore County. There their first three children were born: Susan, in 1949, Bill in 1951, and Lane in 1956.

In 1961, they returned to Tallulah where he took over his family’s farm operation from his father who was in bad health. They established Deer Track Plantation on that land which had been in his mother’s family since before the Civil War, and is to this day is owned by the 7th generation of the family, her granddaughter and her husband. In 1961, their fourth child, Lee was born. While her husband managed the agricultural interest in the plantation, Geneva managed the financial accounts for the business.

After all four children had graduated and left home for college, she established Red Barn Antiques where she sold antiques that she bought during trips to Great Britain to visit relatives. She also had a ceramics studio where she taught ceramics and china painting, and created her own works of art, many of which are still in family members’ homes today.

As the granddaughter of a Scottish immigrant, she maintained close ties throughout her life with her Scottish roots. She participated in many Scottish games throughout the South and served as an officer of the Scottish Baird Clan of the United States. She made several trips to Scotland to visit relatives there.

She was also instrumental in establishing the Hermione History Museum in Tallulah. She served as president of the Madison Parish Historical Society and volunteered as docent in the museum for many years. Most of the historical tracts found at the museum were written by her.

She was a devout Episcopalian her entire life, and served on the altar guild and music committee at Trinity Episcopal Church in Tallulah, where she was married and all her children were christened.

Geneva was beloved by many people because of her good nature, and fun loving spirit. Her friends included people much younger than her and from all different ethnicities. She enjoyed the company of others, without prejudice.

She nursed her husband, who was in poor health, for many years, until he passed away in 1999. Now free of family obligations, she enjoyed many vacations, including visits to her sister in New Orleans where they attended performances of the New Orleans Opera, and a cruise to Nova Scotia. She also enjoyed visiting her daughter in Atlanta over the years where she attended Atlanta Symphony and Atlanta Ballet performances and Atlanta’s High Museum of Art. She also made several trips to Los Angeles where her son Lee lived at the time, enjoying tours of the homes of stars and trips to the many museums in the city.

She was preceded in death by her husband and her parents, as well as her sister Georgia Capshaw, and two sons, William Bryan, and Lane Baird. She is survived by her daughter, Susan Schlueter (Art), and son Lee (Neil) both of Atlanta, as well as grandchildren: Dr. Tres Stefurak of Mobile, Edward Lyle Stefurak of Commerce, Georgia, Sarah Whitman (Trey) of Natchez, Mississippi, and Jonathan Williams (Jamie) of Baton Rouge. Also surviving are her great grandchildren: Lane and Robert Stefurak of Mobile, Kate and Lane Whitman of Natchez, and Luke, Davis and Charlotte Williams of Baton Rouge.

The family also wants to thank the wonderful staff at the Legacy Nursing Home in Tallulah for their loving care in her final years.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, February 4, 2022, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Tallulah, with Fr. Bill Echols officiating. Visitation will be at the church between 10 and 11 AM followed by the service at 11 AM. She will be interred in her family’s burial plot in the Natchez City Cemetery that same day at 3:30 PM. In lieu of flowers, mourners may donate to the Hermoine Museum or to Trinity Episcopal Church. Crothers-Glenwood Funeral Home in Tallulah is in charge of arrangements.