Edwina Williams passed peacefully at home on April 8, 2016. She was born on August 2, 1933, in Harrison Arkansas, to parents Frankie A. Olvey Williams, and Ed Williams. Her father Ed, a police officer, was killed in-the-line-of-duty when Edwina was 8 months old. The Williams family then lived in several towns in Texas until 1948, when they moved to Southern California, where Edwina graduated from Compton High School. She joined the U.S. Army in 1951, training in Medical Technology, and serving in Japan during the Korean War. Upon discharge, she continued her education at San Francisco City College, and at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Subsequently, Edwina worked for over 33 years as a Medical Laboratory Technologist in a hospital clinical setting in San Francisco. She was also in Research and Development, co-authoring and publishing several papers for various scientific journals. She was also on the staff of San Francisco State University, teaching seminars in her field of "Protein Electrophoresis." Edwina had many interests, but had a lifelong passion for Family, both past and present, and was an amateur genealogist. In her last 30 years, she spent countless hours researching her family history, and connecting with near and distant relatives nationwide. She wrote and published the 2nd Edition of The Olvey Family in 2008, and was actively engaged in writing a 3rd edition when she succumbed to her illness; she was truly a fighter who finally lost her 3rd bout with breast cancer.

Edwina was preceded in death by her mother Frankie A. Lane, and sister, Dorothy (Dottie) Allen, both of Long Beach, CA. She is survived by longtime companion Sophie Stamoulis of Bakersfield, nephew Michael Allen of Long Beach, niece Michelle Cleveland of Wisconsin, and many wonderful friends and extended family in California and across the country. A private memorial will be held.
Published in Bakersfield Californian on Apr. 24, 2016