Name/Title
PhotographEntry/Object ID
2017.030.0416Description
This is a photo of Earl "Junior" Williams and is called "The Benicia Boy". This is not the fighter called Benicia Boy (Heenan). I think this is the Earl Williams shown in the obituary 11/9/2005 in the Times Heradld:
Jan. 20, 1916 - Nov. 6, 2005
Earl "Skinny" A. Williams, 89, of Vallejo passed away Sunday after a brief illness. He was born in Benicia and attended Benicia schools. He worked at the Benicia Arsenal for 26 years. He was the foreman of the Small Arms Division until his retirement in 1962. He later worked as a painter and retired from the Painters Union in 1977. Earl was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, living native Benicians.
Earl was an avid fisherman and golfer. At the height of his golfing "career" he maintained a two handicap. During that time he achieved two holes-in-one!
Earl had recently been asked if he had any hobbies. His immediate reply was "people." It seemed that Earl never met a stranger. He touched many lives throughout his life and was loved by all who knew him throughout the communities of Vallejo and Benicia.
He was preceded in death by his wife and love of his life of twenty-two years, Eva Williams; daughter, Sharon Mendenhall; brothers, Willie, Norton, Richard and Clifford Williams; sister, Lavina; mother, and stepfather, Eva and Frank Hall; and best friend of eighty-six years, Arthur ÒFroggyÓ Souza.
Earl is survived by his sons, Earl Williams Jr. and Phillip Williams; daughters, Toni Verburg and Jeni Rainal; granddaughters, Melanie Martin, Wendy Newman and Elizabeth Foushee; and four great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Passalacqua Funeral Chapel in Benicia, Calif. Inurnment will be private.
Published in TimesHeraldOnline on Nov. 9, 2005Collection
Benicia Historical Museum Collection
