Kristine J. Keck Williams' Obituary
Kristine J (Keck) Williams Obituary, 1948 - 2021
At the end of her life, Kris (Keck) Williams struggled to catch her breath. Exhausted, sore … wanting for oxygen to share her thoughts. She found a bit of energy and wanted to jump to her feet. Her care team patiently sat with her, urging her simply to rest. At 4:50 a.m. on January 15, 2021, with the care and support of her family, friends, and medical team, she passed through the doors she had spent her entire life preparing to enter.
In the more than 10 years she had lived with her multiple conditions, she never once gave up or settled in. She didn’t complain or speak at length about the abundance of medication, doctors, distraction, or disruption she faced in her everyday life. She simply carried on, smiled on, and looked forward. She went about living her life anyway, the way she decided it. Persistent. Tenacious. Stubborn. In the words her father, John W. P. Keck, cast in concrete the summer of 1992 near the house he himself designed and built on the banks of Lake Decatur, “My way.”
Even before all the diagnoses and doctor visits and searches for funding and the need to make “choose-your-own-adventure” type decisions, she was a strong woman.
In 1953, she was a little girl determined to be the best ice skater on Lake Decatur among her three older sisters, Suzanne, Yvonne, and Annette. In August of the next year, she, her sisters, and her parents, John and Helen V. Keck, were featured in the Decatur Herald & Review newspaper, where her dad worked as plant manager, for their wanderlust as they camped and explored the Canadian wilderness.
By 1968 she set out on her own to Oregon as a VISTA volunteer, worked at a cannery, and learned how to hitchhike along the coast with her friends. In 1969, she faced critical decisions and ultimately chose to come home to Decatur where her oldest son, David, was born. Seven years later she was married to Dale Williams and had her youngest son, Aaron. Just a few short months later, she became a widow with two young sons to raise but within walking distance of her parents on Lake Decatur where she was raised.
She pulled herself up, trained for and, in 1978, received a position at AT&T where she later became a Union representative, advocating for her peers in the way only she could.
She tried her first and last cigar right at her meadow gold kitchen sink in 1985 … and for many years she somehow wrangled and managed two persistent, tenacious, and stubborn boys by herself while also commuting every day to Springfield.
She adventured with those boys providing opportunities to travel throughout the US, including one trip to the Grand Canyon with Grandparents in their grand Ford station wagon, wood trim, red leather, and rear-facing window seat installed. Grandfather John shared about the canyon as we gazed upon it, “Yup … it’s a BIG hole.”
Kris was a member of Holy Family Church for the majority of her life spending many years serving in the choir and helping families who had recently lost loved ones. She attended church every Sunday, even virtually during the 2020 pandemic, and prayed daily – most likely because of her boys but maybe other reasons as well.
She provided weekly care for both her dad and mom as they aged and daily when they could no longer care for themselves. She was a proud grandmother to her granddaughter, Chloe, and physically present in her daily life since her birth. She was a patient ear, support, and strong consult and advocate for friends, neighbors … anyone who needed their voice to be heard. She was devout … to her boys, to her family, to her friends and neighbors, and to the church.
As these last few years slowly wrung out her ability to be the strong person she is, just as on her final day, she found the energy to adventure on. She ventured on road trips and to places she had dreamed about: To the world’s longest yard sale, driving from Tennessee to Canada. To Mackinac Island in Michigan and bourbon country in Kentucky. To Pennsylvania and to Wyoming and Idaho to visit her
sisters. On the Spirit of Peoria paddle boat to explore the Illinois river and to Louisiana to celebrate a son’s new journey. She even ventured to Spain and to Costa Rica while toting her luggage AND her breathing apparatus.
Exhausted, sore – wanting for a bit of oxygen to share her thoughts … and her pictures.
Persistent. Tenacious. Stubborn. Caring. Devout. Adventurous … Strong. What a life she led.
Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for Kris at 10:30 AM, Friday, January 29, 2021.at Holy Family Church in Decatur, IL. Visitation will be from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM Friday at the church.
Inurnment will be at Calvary Cemetery.
COVID Rules apply and may be listed on Holy Family’s website. Preceded in death by her husband, Dale, her parents John and Helen, and her sister Suzanne (Daugherty). Survived by her sisters Yvonne (Gary) Holman, Annette (Lud) Long, her sons, David (Dee) and Aaron (Rebecca), granddaughter, Chloe, nephews Dan (Joanne), Matt (Laura), and Hugh (Julie), and niece Heather (Daugherty). Arrangements under care of Graceland Fairlawn. Please view her obituary and share memories and condolences at www.moranandgoebel.com. In lieu of flowers, with our family’s thanks in advance, please consider donating to the charitable organizations who were a tremendous help in extending and empowering Kristine’s life: The Assistance Fund (www. https://tafcares.org/donors/donate) and The PAN Foundation (www. https://www.panfoundation.org/donate).
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