W. W. Williams, Sr.

Wayne Wynn Williams, Sr.
Webster Parish, Louisiana, Superintendent of Schools
In office 1971–1978
Preceded by	Robert H. Manning
Succeeded by	Harry M. Campbell
Born	September 10, 1917 Leesville, Vernon Parish Louisiana
Died	September 16, 2000 (aged 83)
Resting place	Gardens of Memory Cemetery
Spouse(s)	Irene Botkins Williams (married 1945-2000, his death) Sons (both deceased): Wayne Wynn "Butch" Williams, Jr. James Byron "Jimmy" Williams Six grandchildren
Residence	Minden, Louisiana
Religion	Southern Baptist

Wayne Wynn Williams, Sr., known as W. W. Williams (September 10, 1917 – September 16, 2000), was an educator from Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. Between 1961 and 1971, he was a high school supervisor and assistant parish superintendent. He served as superintendent from 1971 until his retirement in 1978. During his time as superintendent, Williams presided over the completion of desegregation and school consolidation in the Webster Parish system, which entailed the closure of the former historically black Webster High School in Minden, which became a junior high school.

Background

Born in Leesville in Vernon Parish near the Texas border, Williams was a son of Dr. Samuel Smart Williams and the former Louise Emma Wynn. He graduated from what is now Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, then known as Louisiana Normal Institute. He later obtained a master's degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He began his teaching career in the late 1930s in Shongaloo in central Webster Parish teaching English and history, with coaching duties in basketball and baseball. Williams fought with the United States Army in World War II in the China-Burma-India campaign with the 10th Air Force. He rose to the rank of captain.

Career

After the war, Williams resumed his educational career in Shongaloo. Then in 1950, he became the second principal of Edwin Sanders Richardson Elementary School in Minden and from June 1952 to 1961 the principal for Minden (Louisiana) High School. He and James Lemmon "J. L" Cathcart (1895-1969), a native of Fairfield County, South Carolina, switched principal positions in 1952, with Cathcart transferring to Richardson and Williams to MHS. During Williams' administration, a new MHS main building opened in 1954. It was fully renovated at the same site in 2007. Williams oversaw the building of the MHS stadium, which was named for him in 2009 and renovated in 2015. In addition, a track, a covered walkway from the main building to the gymnasium, and parking lots were constructed. At the time, the gym contained one of the few indoor heated swimming pools in the state. Minden swim teams were state champions every single year of Williams' tenure. In 1981, the pool was abandoned when it became too costly to maintain.

The MHS Crimson Tide was the state football champion in 1938, 1954, 1956, 1963, and 1980, the state basketball champion in 1955 and 1959, and the runner-up in 1954, the baseball champion in 1956 and the runner-up in 1954 and 1955, the state track runner-up in 1963, the state track champion in 1964, 1965 and 1966, and the Gulf Open golf champion in 1956. Shreveport sportswriters at that time began to refer to Minden teams as the "Home of the Champions." Even when the teams did not win statewide, they were invariably district champions in the respective sports. In 1960, the football team secured the district title but lost the state championship to Neville High School in Monroe. The team won statewide again in 1963 and 1980. In 1963, the later Webster Parish Superintendent Wayne Wynn "Butch" Williams, Jr., the older son of W. W. Williams, was a junior player on the winning MHS team and later played football at Louisiana Tech University with Terry Bradshaw, who thereafter quarterbacked four winning Super Bowl championships for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, MHS ranked in the top 1 percent on national standardized test scores in English, the top 2 percent in science, the top 3 percent in mathematics, and the top 5 percent in social studies (history, government, and civics). Hence, only 1 to 5 percent iof students nationally ranked ahead of Minden High School. The school has yet to match those tallies again.

While Williams was principal of the high school, Maude Bullock (October 5, 1905 – July 5, 1987), who joined the Webster Parish school system in 1926, became one of the first women administrators. In the late 1950s, she was a seventh grade teacher and the principal of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. In 1960, Miss Bullock was named "Outstanding Educator of the Year." She spent her last years in professional education still instructing the seventh grade as a founding faculty member at the former Theresa McConnell Lowe Junior High School, which opened in the fall of 1960 and was later turned into an alternative school.

Personal life

For fifty-five years, Williams was married to the former Irene Botkins (June 18, 1921 – September 20, 2015), a native of Rockcastle County but reared in Maysville in northern Kentucky. For thirty-four years until her retirement in 1986, she was the MHS secretary. The couple met in Dayton, Ohio, at Wright Field, later Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where Williams was stationed, and Irene was a war-time civil service employee. The City of Minden declared "Irene Williams Day" on May 21, 1986.

In 1961, Williams was named "Citizen of the Year" by the Minden Lions International.In 1965, he was named Educator of the Year." He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion. For forty years, he taught Sunday school and was a life deacon at the First Baptist Church of Minden. After retirement, he headed the trophy section of the family business, Minden Athletic Supply.On September 4, 2009, the MHS football stadium was named the "W. W. Williams, Sr., Stadium."

Williams died of a lengthy illness at the age of eighty-three. His services were conducted by minister Bill Ichter at the First Baptist Church of Minden. He and Mrs. Williams, who lived another fifteen years, are interred at Gardens of Memory Cemetery in Minden.

Williams' younger son, businessman James Byron "Jimmy" Williams (1955-2024), served from 2009 until his death as the mayor of Sibley, a small town south of Minden. He was also a former president of the Louisiana Municipal Association.

Williams' namesake grandson, "Trey" Williams, now the senior director of marketing at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, was from 2006 to 2008 the communications director for Republican former U.S. Representative and former Governor Bobby Jindal. From 2008 to 2014, he was communications director for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services.