'Mrs. Child Haven' Williams dies at 62

Before Nancy Williams came to Las Vegas in 1961, local school district officials were mighty proud to have hired sight unseen such a highly qualified out-of-state teacher.

After all, Williams had graduated valedictorian from Quincy College, a Franciscan school in Illinois. In the late 1950s, she became a highly regarded teacher at Shelby County Training School in Memphis, Tenn. And she was attending graduate school at Tennessee State University at the time.

"When my mom walked through the door and they saw that she was black they told her there was no job for her here," Bernard Peter Williams of Las Vegas said, reflecting on a time in history that many longtime Nevadans would sooner forget.

But the local school system's loss was the Clark County Juvenile Court Services' gain. For Williams, under an affirmative action program started by then-Juvenile Court Services Director Mike O'Callaghan, became the town's first black juvenile probation officer and launched a 30-year career helping troubled Las Vegas youths and families.

Nancy Ellen Webb-Williams, who as a poet under the pen name "Big Mama" gained acclaim for her book "When We Were Colored," died Thursday at the University Medical Center while recuperating from recent cancer surgery. She was 62.

There will be no services for the Las Vegas resident of 37 years. At her request, she was cremated and her ashes will be spread over Mount Charleston.

During her career in juvenile services, Williams became the first black department supervisor and was longtime director of Child Haven, where she started numerous programs still in effect today. She also was director of Probation Services.

"Nancy was a delightful lady who helped make Nevada a better place to live," said Sun Executive Editor O'Callaghan, who as two-term governor of Nevada appointed Williams to the state's crime commission in the 1970s. "I feel fortunate for having had the opportunity to work with her."

Adrienne Cox, assistant director of Clark County Family Court Services, formerly Clark County Juvenile Court Services, was hired as a probation officer by Williams in 1973 and remembers her old boss as "a consummate social worker."

"She was a well-read woman who kept up with the national trends of juveniles," Cox said. "And she was Mrs. Child Haven for many years in the 1980s. She was really concerned for the welfare of the children."

Bernard Williams recalled that his mother put in long hours on the job.

"Many days when she was supposed to get off at 5 p.m., she'd be at the office until 7 or 8 -- she was a troubleshooter for wherever they needed her," he said. "Mom was dedicated to her work, but she also found time to raise three kids as a single mom and go to school."

To advance her career, Nancy earned a masters degree in public administration at UNLV.

Georgie Toepfert, Williams secretary for many years, remembered her as "a very compassionate" woman.

"She thought things out and, when she made up her mind, you couldn't change it," Toepfert said. "And she really showed her spiritualism and wit in her writings."

Williams wrote five books, the latest of which is appropriately titled "Swingin' at the Pearly Gates," a memoir that is at the publishers and awaiting a release date.

Her first book, "When We Were Colored," was published by the National Writers Press in 1986.

Williams' longtime friend, Wendy Altamura, writes in the preface: "Under the guidance of the friars (at Quincy College, Nancy) began the unfolding sensitivity and the vivid understanding which culminate in this warm, angry, humorous and sometimes whimsical record of feelings and behavior from having lived in a colored world."

The poems in "When We Were Colored," include the title piece as well as "Hit the Road Aunt Jemima or Do I Have to Give Up My Pancakes to Have My Consciousness Raised," "Crime the Biggest Employer in the Ghetto" and "Ode To Rosa Parks."

In "Crime The Biggest Employer in the Ghetto," Williams looks through the eyes of the troubled teens she dealt with on a daily basis and writes: "Crime the biggest employer in the ghetto. Got work for whoever needs a job. If the Man won't send you out from the union hall, at least you can steal and rob."

In the nostalgic poem"When We Were Colored" she blended bittersweet memories of a poor childhood with the stark bigotry she experienced growing up in Middle America:

"Down South they had flush Colored toilets and those Colored water fountains; everybody knows. In our Midwest towns we Coloreds had nothin but bushes and a drink from the fillin station hose. When we were Colored."

Williams, whose other books of folklore and poetry include "Them Gospel Songs," "The Soul Side" and "Diana's Pain," is listed in Who's Who of Black America.

She was born Nancy Ellen Webb on Aug. 1, 1935, in Quincy, a small, mostly white Mississippi River community a few miles up from Hannibal, Mo., where author Mark Twain spent his boyhood. She was the fifth of eight children.

Williams graduated from Quincy Senior High School and earned a scholarship to Quincy College, where she graduated on June 2, 1957. Williams later attended the University of Texas A&I where she studied special education.

She left her teaching job and graduate study work in Memphis to come to Nevada, then the Mississippi of the West, where Williams had been told she had a teaching job.

O'Callaghan recalled that Williams once told him that school officials simply told her they made a mistake in hiring her because she "didn't sound black over the phone."

After being turned away, Williams was hired by O'Callaghan on Aug. 28, 1961. She was promoted to supervisor on Jan. 7, 1974, and retired on Sept. 9, 1991.

"Today's young probation workers do not have time, or take the time, to develop relationships with the kids," Williams told the Sun in a 1991 interview. "Without relationships, the kids do not change their attitudes and behaviors for the better. Threats of punishment do not motivate a youth to do right, and never did."

A large, robust woman, Williams was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago.

In addition to her son, Williams is survived by two daughters, Cynthia "Candy" Clay and Troy Andrea Reddic, both of Las Vegas; three sisters, Wilma Jones of Quincy, Bessie Jackson of Memphis and Mary Bryant of Indiana; two brothers, Dick Webb of Quincy and Jimmy Webb of Colorado; 7 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

archive