Glenda Williams

GLENDA JO WILLIAMS

Glenda Williams died Monday, February 1st at the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper shortly before noon. Her having contracted the Covid 19 virus two weeks prior ended her three-year battle with cancer. The virus tipped the scale of her struggle and she had no more strength to respond.
Glenda was born on March 2nd, 1940 to Glen H. Beadle and Juanita E. Lincoln Beadle in Kearney, Nebraska. She was the oldest of their four children. She attended elementary school at the Glenwood rural school, then junior high and high school in Kearney. She attended what was then Kearney State College for two years. On August 5th, 1959 she and K. Dale Williams of Merna, Nebraska were married in Kearney, Nebraska. Dale had just completed basic training in the United States Air Force, and they promptly moved to Denver, Colorado for a year, then on to Spokane, Washington. In January of 1962 their first child, Mark J. Williams, was born at the Fairchild AFB hospital. They moved from Spokane to Rapid City, then back to Spokane, to Roseville, California and back to Spokane while in the USAF. In January, 1964 they moved back to Kearney as Dale re-joined civilian life and attended the now re-named University of Nebraska at Kearney. (Go Lopers!) Their second son Kenneth D. Williams III was born in Kearney in March of 1964. In 1967 they moved to Gothenburg where Dale taught in the high school. In 1970 they moved back to Kearney as Dale took an educational program leader job there. In March of 1971 their daughter Megan L. Williams was born in Kearney. In 1980 Dale made a career change, so they moved to Muscatine, Iowa; then to Delta, Utah and finally landing in Glenrock, Wyoming where they still reside.

After raising her children, Glenda was determined to return to UNK and finish her degree program. She moved back to Kearney temporarily and finally accomplished her goal.
Glenda was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by two brothers, Steve L. Beadle, Kern A. Beadle (Dani) and sister, Carol A. Letcher, all of Kearney. Also surviving her is sister-in-law Anna M. Williams Nilson of Lake Elsinore California.
Grandchildren include Cole Williams and Alec Williams of Denver, Colorado; Lacey Williams and Lexie Williams of Papillion and Kearney, Nebraska; Dalton Williams and Harley Gonzales both of Casper. Great-grandchildren include Skyler and Melodie Williams of Denver; and Avalynne, Hayden and Korbin Williams of Casper.

A small family-only service is scheduled, followed by cremation. Glenda will be interred at a later date in the Williams family plot at the Merna Cemetery. Post-pandemic, the celebration of life will be scheduled in Glenrock. Please plan to join us at that time.
Remembrance from her daughter Megan: Glenda Williams, my mother, was the kind of person who wore a Dr. Seuss "Green Eggs and Ham" shirt with pride. Her favorite t shirts were almost always book related, supporting reading, or in support of the public libraries. She loved color! Always her statement had color. She used to ask me, from a very early age, "Why do you always wear black"? I would laugh and say it was all colors. It became the norm and we laughed about it. My mom always said you can do anything you want to me and my brothers, to her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren. She loved all of us so very much!

We always knew that! My parents were very thoughtful in the way they planned to raise us. I remember my mom telling me about the conversations they had about what and how they wanted to be as parents. My mom did the very best she could and she reminded me in moments of wondering, "Did you do the very best you could"? No matter the outcome, if you did your very best then it was the right thing. My mother was empowering and I will always be thankful that she encouraged us to have a voice, be strong independent people, while being kind, to live and love fiercely. In the most recent years my mother had been battling a rare sarcoma cancer. She was winning some of the time and some not. She was living was the best thing. She used to say, "that cancer ruined a perfectly good knee", when her leg was giving her fits. The thing I will always have a hard time forgiving is that Covid complicated everything too much and the complications of it ended up being too much to balance. I would enter some expletives here, but my mother did not really talk that way. Unless you got her to play cards against humanity and then, well, she had all her children and grandchildren practically crying in laughter. My mom, Glenda Jo, was the very best mother and we will miss her so very much. Someone said they had no words and feel like there are not enough words in all the books my mother owned to describe how fabulous she was and she will continue to be in our many memories.
Continued by her son Mark:

Megan started this out very well so I guess I'll try to add to it;.

The first thing I will tell you is my mom always loved all of us equally and whole heartedly, although I'm sure we fully tested her patience on a regular basis. She had the patience of a Saint but we knew that when your first, middle, and last name started a statement you better stop everything and listen! She was our biggest fan, coach, cheering section, nurse, medic, and on occasion ambulance driver. Haha! She certainly kept us safe, but we were mostly feral kids and we lived outside most of the time so things happened. She loved all of her Nieces, Nephews, great nieces, grandkids and great grandkids.

From my earliest memory my parents loved to take us camping even though, come to find out much later, she was never a big fan of roughing it. She preferred camper camping. She could make anything from the back of the International Travel all to the 8-man Colman tent feel like home. Whether, at horse shows or in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.

Like my sister so eloquently mentioned she loved color! She set my Kindergarten teacher straight. My teacher thought it was strange that I colored my people in my drawings purple or green or whatever color and I refused to color inside the lines haha!
I always thought my mom like all kids do, was beautiful. One time long long ago she and Dad were going out somewhere dressed up. Mom was wearing a yellow dress and fancy shoes because they were going dancing. I was like wow she looks like a movie star!

Mom was always reminding us to be fair and to include people we might not be thinking of. She also always said that we could be anything we wanted if we put our mind to it. Girls can do anything they want to and someday you will like them. haha! She taught us to be open minded and kind. Even though she didn't always work when we were kids, even when she did at times, we never felt neglected. Mind your manners set the table correctly were a must. She was a feminist in her own way, she spoke her mind, and she was a strong modern lady.

Mom was a heck of a softball player and a crack shot with a pistol, shotgun or rifle. To my knowledge she never hunted anything but she would cook anything we killed if we skinned and cleaned it first. She would make sure we did a bang up job of it. Later in life she and Dad did (cowboy shooting) competition shooting in Character as the infamous "Jo storyteller" in line with her being a children's librarian at the library.
There's so much more to tell of a life well lived. Love you Mom you will be dearly missed.
In lieu of flowers we are asking to donate in her memory to the Natrona County Public Library where she spent many years as one of the Children's librarians.

https://www.natronacountylibrary.org/foundation/