Shirley Williams

Please click here to view the Funeral Service for Shirley Williams on Friday, September 29, 2023 at 11am https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/8469794959

CROFTON, MD - Shirley (Panton) Williams passed away at home surrounded by her children on September 14, 2023.  Shirley was born at Rushwood Lodge in East Tanfield, Yorkshire, England on May 23,1935 to George and Mary (Sawyer) Panton.  She spent her life caring for others.  After leaving home, Shirley worked in a nursing home before taking a job as a nanny in New York City in 1957.  It was there that she met and married John T. (Jack) Williams on April 28, 1963 at St. Gregory the Great Parish on the Upper West Side.  Together they had three children.

After the couple moved to Crofton, Shirley devoted herself to creating a loving home for her family.  She tirelessly supported her husband and children in all their endeavors.  Hers was the home where all her children’s friends always came to play and the cookies and cakes she baked them became a bit of a legend in the neighborhood.  As for her husband, Jack, no restaurant, no matter how gourmet the food, could ever measure up to the meals she made for him. 

Although Shirley spent the majority of her life in the United States, she was still very proud of her British heritage.  The gardens and patios surrounding her house in Crofton were always lush and teeming with the flowers she loved, reminiscent of a cottage in the English countryside.  She drank tea every day prepared in the proper British way with milk and sugar, while her special dinners usually included roast beef and her delicious Yorkshire Puddings, a family favorite.

Shirley was an extraordinary wife and mother.  She spent most of every day making sure that her family always had everything they needed.  She also firmly believed in helping others and when she shopped each week for her family, she always bought food to donate to those who were not as fortunate as she was.  She was dearly loved and will be deeply missed.  Shirley is survived in death by her children Margaret (Williams) Levine, Douglas, and Bronwyn Williams, her son-in-law, Dr. John Levine, her grandchildren, Seth, Sam, Jake, and Eli Levine, and her brother, Sidney Panton.  She was preceded in death by her husband, John T. (Jack) Williams, her parents, George Panton and Mary (Sawyer Panton) Thorpe, her brothers William Panton, and Joseph Sawyer, and her sisters Margaret (Peggy) Craft, Gladys (Panton) McLoughin, and Barbara (Panton) Lawson.

Services will be held at Beall Funeral Home, 6512 Crain Highway in Bowie, Maryland.  Visitation will begin at 10:00am and a funeral service will take place at 11:00am.  There burial will follow at Meadowridge Cemetery, 7250 Washington Blvd., Eldridge, MD.