Alversa Williams Lee, 1911-2007

This is a time of sadness and reflection for the Williams-Rivers Family. We have lost one of our most beloved family members, Alversa Williams Lee made her transition on Tuesday October 9, 2007, in Memphis, Tennessee. Mother, sister, wife, cousin, aunt, sister-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother--She was a matriarch of our family. Aunt Alversa was a driving force behind the Williams-Rivers Family Reunion which has occurred every even numbered year since the late 1970s. She was also one of our Family Griots, who shared her vast knowledge of family history with us all, through her writings in the family reunion booklets and many personal conversations. Her insights are among those that have made the Descendants of Mandi website possible.

She was born near Brownsville Tennessee in 1911, into a very large family. She was the forth child, and oldest girl born to Dennis Williams and Luella Short Williams. Luella was Dennis’ second wife and at the time of her birth, Alversa had 15 older siblings. The family would later grow to a total of 21 siblings. She later married Robert Lee, and they had a large family of their own, 14 kids in all. Over the years she became a kind of mother to us all. It always amazed me that she knew and could remember all the names of members of our family—as I could scarcely imagine keeping up with the names of 14 kids, much less all the cousins, etc. that she had stored in her brain. She was a sharp woman, and remained so, right into her 90s.

With her passing, I was reminded of a quote on the importance of elders and ancestors in our families. The quote is from Alex Haley's commentary in the acknowledgements of his best selling novel “Roots.” Haley said, "Today it is rightly said that when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground. The griot symbolizes how all human ancestry goes back to some place, some time, where there was no writing. Then, the memories and the mouths of ancient elders was the only way that early histories of mankind got passed along...for all of us to know who we are."

I think it is fitting that we honor Aunt Alversa with a quote from Alex Haley, as he was an acquaintance of hers, from nearby Henning Tennessee, and he helped inspire her to pursue her quest for a family reunion in the late 1970s after the phenomenal success of his book. I imagine that now, the two of them will be enjoying deep conversations about the importance of history and family to this ongoing journey we’re all traversing.

Our related sister website, The Short Austin Family Tree has also placed a Memorium to Aunt Alversa on it's Elders Page: (the page was up until October 31 2007, it has now been removed)

It can be found at http://www.shortaustinfamilytree.com/elders_page.html

Another tribute, written by her Granddaughter Intisar Abioto, can be found at the PEOPLE COULD FLY Website Blog.

Pray for us in the days ahead.