Individual 6: Viola Clide Williams

Individual Record 6

Name} Williams, Viola Clide (Vi)

Family History} Hancock

Title}

Race} White

Sex} Female

Birth: Date} Exa 12 Sep 1920

Place} Walnut Street, Coffeyville, Montgomery, Kansas

Marr.: Date} Fam 19 Mar 1939

Place} Presbyterian Church, San Rafael, Marin, California (Link)

Marr.: Date} Exa 16 Sep 1942

Place} First Methodist Church, Napa, Napa, California (Link)

Death: Date} Exa 20 Sep 1993

Place} 1147 Hardman Avenue, Napa, California

Burial: Date} Exa 1 Oct 1993

Place} Duhig plot, Tulocay Cemetery, Napa, Napa, California

Grave Marker} Yes

Source 1}	6 = Family notes
Source 2}	732 = 1930 USA cen
Source 3}	443 = Divorce rec
Source 4}	247 = Church recrd
Source 5}	854 = Newspaper
Source 6}	164 = Geog history
Source 7}	289 = Cookbook
Source 8}	290 = Cookbook
Source 9}	291 = Cookbook
Source 10}	856 = Newspaper
Source 11}	857 = Newspaper
Source 12}	375 = Biography
Source 13}	324 = Death certif
Source 14}	316 = Obituary
Source 15}	30 = Cemetery rec
Source 16}	701 = Photographs

Parents: } Simeon Clyde Williams & Bessie Crystal McFarren
Relationship No.} 5

1st Household No.} 80 = 1611 F Street, Napa, California

Occupation 1} Housewife
Occupation 2} Musician
Occupation 3} Writer/author

Religion/Church} Methodist

Spouses: Prime} Hancock, Warren Samuel (Bud)
Duhig, Stewart Morton (Duke)
Total Number of} 2

Notes: Vi was born in 1920 while her mother was on a trip to Kansas to visit her grandmother. Shortly after her birth, her parents moved with her into a two-story house at 1611 F Street in Napa. Vi loved that house and all of its good memories.

Vi started kindergarten in 1925 at the Lincoln School on Main Street in Napa.

Vi took piano lessons from Flossie Grigsby for 12 years. She had piano recitals every year in the high school auditorium. In the seventh grade at Intermediate School she started cello lessons. She carried her cello to school twice a week for two years from the F Street house.

Vi's family moved into a house at 458 Brown Street just as she was ready for high school in 1934. Vi walked two miles to high school and carried her cello each day until she got a boyfriend to carry it for her.

Soon Vi was became quite proficient at music. She joined with Vivian Gardner on piano, Marilyn Walker on violin, and Vi on cello to form the Lyrie Concert Trio. They played for teas, fashion shows, dinners, lodges — and even competed on Buddah's Amateur Hour on CBS Radio in San Francisco. They won the audition and then in the finals, after six weeks of going down once a week, were beat out by a soprano in her 40s.

The Napa High School orchestra, under the direction of Luigi Catalano was getting very good during this time. (Mr. Catalano was from Sicily and had played violin first chair in top symphonies in Italy.) For three years Vi played very difficult operatic numbers with the orchestra. Luigi formed the Philharmonic Society made up of the best of school instrumentalists. Vi play concerts with them, accompanied guest stars, and played intermissions for Pretenders Playhouse plays.

Vi also played third-chair in the cello section in the Napa Valley Symphony orchestra with her father, a concert violinist. She played two concerts with the Vallejo Symphony with her father.

After graduating from Napa High School, Vi received a nursing certificate from a nursing school in Sacramento. Then she ran the lab and x-ray at Imola. However, she was soon diagnosed as a TB carrier and had to give up her nursing career.

She also briefly tried modeling: her legs were photographed for silk hosiery advertisements.

Vi was the past Noble Grand of the Ivy Rebekah Lodge No. 23 in Napa and a leader of the Vichy 4-H Club for 18 years. She was a charter member of the Vichy Mothers Club and the Napa Valley Art Association. She was also a member of the Napa Valley Garden Club, the Browns Valley Garden Club, the Welcome Wagon Garden Club, the Napa Valley Historical Society, Napa Valley Landmarks, the Sierra Club, and the Napa County Land Trust.

She was a double breast cancer survivor. She had a mastectomy in 1955 and a second one in 1968.

Vi was the owner and operator of Vi's Begonia Garden at her Hardman Avenue residence for 25 years.

She wrote three cookbooks, published in 1979, 1980, and 1989, respectively, that were full of her family's edible heirlooms and family treasures and Vi's own unusual twists for entertaining. Following the death of her husband Duke, Vi published a book called Huichica in 1990 that he wrote.

The photo on the left shows Vi in February 1986. The photo on the right shows Vi in August 1986 in front of her home at 1147 Hardman Avenue in Napa. During her last five years, she volunteered in the district attorney's office in the Victim's of Crime-Witness Program.

Vi died in 1993 at age 73 after a six-month battle with lung cancer. She had been a heavy smoker of Chesterfield cigarettes during her younger years.