Bronx, N.Y. — Mrs. Alene Boone Williams, of Bronx, N.Y., died peacefully on July 29, 2009 at a Bronx hospital. She was 94 years old.
Mrs. Williams was born on Feb. 17, 1915, in the Skeetertown neighborhood of Nansemond County. She was the daughter of William Jesse Boone and Chessie Faulk Boone.
During a time when educational opportunity was systematically limited, she finished the one-room Hosier Lane Elementary School in Skeetertown. There being no high schools open to black students at the time, she enrolled at Isle of Wight Training School in Smithfield, where she graduated in the early 1930s.
After graduation, she moved to New York to find greater employment opportunities. She first worked in domestic jobs before gaining employment as a typesetter for a paintbrush company, from which she retired after nearly two decades of outstanding service.
She was the widow of the David Williams, a Pullman dining car waiter who was active during the 1950s and 1960s in the equal-rights advocating Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters labor union led by A. Philip Randolph.
After retirement, Mrs. Williams remained active as a volunteer and as a member of senior-citizen organizations, enjoying events ranging from sewing, to Tai Chi exercises to attending Broadway plays and concerts. Along with her husband, she also was an avid supporter of the NAACP.
Mrs. Williams is survived by two sisters, Marion B. Barnes and Marilyn B. West, both of Suffolk; and two brothers, Alton Boone, of Lexington, Ky., and Walter Boone, of Suffolk. She also is survived by numerous other relatives. They include nephews Raymond H. Boone, of Richmond, and Raleigh Ford, of Suffolk; and nieces, Geneva B. Boone, of Hopewell, Lolethia Boone, of Hampton and Ira Boone, of Suffolk.
The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 3, at Crocker Funeral Home, 900 E. Washington St., Suffolk. A funeral will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 at noon at Mount Ararat Christian Church, 1860 Airport Road, Suffolk. The Rev. Dr. H.H. Murrill will officiate. Interment will be in Lauder Skeeter Cemetery. The family will assemble at the funeral home at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to Mount Ararat Christian Church or Calvary Funding of Calvary Hospital, 1740 Easterchester Road, Bronx, NY 10461. Crocker Funeral Home, Inc. is in charge of the arrangements. Condolences may be extended to the family at www.crockerfuneralhome.com.