Sophie Amanda Shuler Williams

Sophie Amanda Shuler Williams, age 93 of French Creek, died Saturday, March 14, 2009 at United Hospital Center. She was born October 15, 1915 in Parloursville, SC a daughter of the late Isom and Pherlicher Mack Shuler.Amanda was the youngest of six brothers and sisters. After the death of her father, she and her mother moved in with her Aunt Maude Seaberry in Santee, SC. They then moved to Sea Bright, NJ where she graduated from high school with honors. After the birth of her first son, Alvin Eddie, she moved to NY where she joined the Emmanuel AME Church in Harlem where she served on the Gospel Chorus for many years. She was an active business woman opening her own small store and cooking at a large sleep away summer camp. She also worked for many years for the Federal Government GSA. She then moved with her husband, Horace Clarence Williams and her sons to Jamaica, Queens, where she joined Salem Missionary Baptist Church in February 1964. She sang in the Senior choir, was President of the Nurses Unit, was made deaconess and taught in the Summer Day Camp. While living there, her oldest son, Alvin passed away.Amanda always believed in keeping the doors of her home open to anyone in need. Throughout the years she made a part of her family a young married couple with four children who moved from SC and suddenly found themselves homeless in Manhattan. She also helped a young teenage niece who needed a quiet home while her parents settled their divorce. She was there for an older teenage cousin whose parents died within months of each other and whose closer relatives left her alone as well as helping an infant whose mother couldn’t take care of him for a few months. Finally she was a mother to a little boy and two girls who were abandoned and who she raised to adulthood as her own children. In her quieter moments she took pride in starting piano lessons, getting up at six in the morning to enjoy her small garden in NY, reciting poetry, sewing costumes, teaching cooking as well as starting a personal library. She moved to French Creek, WV March 14, 2007 and visited French Creek UM Church when she could, living the rest of her days in peace here. She leaves to mourn her passing her son, Douglas Nathaniel, her son Dayton Horace and daughter-in-law, Mary Ann, granddaughters Amanda and Angelique, cousin Brenda Hall, great grand niece Kenya and Chantelle Sheard, great grand nephew Larry, great great grand nephew Corey, Jr. as well as a host of relatives, friends and neighbors.Friends will be received at the French Creek United Methodist Church on Thursday, March 19, 2009 from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM the funeral hour

Sophie Amanda Shuler Williams

October 15, 1915 - March 14, 2009