EASLEY – Longtime Easley resident and native, “Keme” Clemence W. Williams, has recorded her 86 years of life into a book and would like to donate it to the Captain Kimberly Hampton memorial Library.
“After 86 years, I started realizing that some young people today know absolutely nothing about the period in which I lived, so I thought I would start at the very beginning and go through the various periods of my life showing the drastic changes that have come about from the 1920s, 30s, the war in the 40s, the 50s, and on up. I think I have lived through 13 or 14 Presidents,” Williams said. “I just thought it would be interesting for people to see how life has changed through the various periods of a person’s life.”
Williams was born in a four-room house on Cleveland Street in Easley in 1925 and is a 1946 graduate of Furman University where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in English
She also attended Louisiana State University and received a Master’s Degree in Library Science.
Her career as an educator and librarian began as a teacher at Taylors High School in Taylors, South Carolina.
She was also the head librarian at Greenville Senior High School, taught at a University in Lafayette, Louisiana, and was the head librarian at Lafayette high School.
“I’ve told a lot of my former students that as far as my profession is concerned, I could not have been more pleased. I loved my teaching at Taylors High School, I loved the students, and I loved the library work at Greenville Senior High and at Lafayette High,” Williams said.
Following the death of her sister, Dorothy Till, Williams donated $40,000 of her and her sister’s estate to the Captain Kimberly Hampton Memorial Library.
“Reading has been such an important part of not only my life, but my entire family. My mother was an avid reader, my brother’s books were more important to him than anything else, and my sister and I have loved reading from the time that we could barely read, so we all have loved reading and books,” Williams said. “I just thought it was prudent that we would donate some money to the library, and after finishing my book and having it printed, I would like to donate a copy of that to the library for local interest.”
The Williams-Till Reading Room is now in use at the Captain Kimberly Hampton Memorial Library.
Williams still lives in the house that she designed and built in Easley.
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