Wanda Lynn Williams Wells was the fifth of six children born to Pearl Milligan Williams and Owen Obine Williams on March 7, 1945, in the community of Battle Axe, near Tuckerman. She attended all twelve years of school at Tuckerman Public Schools and was an honor graduate of the class of 1963 High School. She was a 1966 graduate of Arkansas Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in Little Rock where she began her nursing career as a Registered Nurse. While in high school and nursing school she sang in her church choir as well as the traveling nursing choir under the direction of the late John A. Gilbreath, hospital administrator and choir director. Her love for most venues of music began as a child learning to sing with her family at home. She and her younger sister, Vickie Diane Williams began studying piano and voice with excellent directors of music at the First Baptist Church in Tuckerman in the late 1950s through the mid 1960s. As a 13-year-old child she was able to first see her favorite singer Elvis Presley when he was introduced at a gospel music concert at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee, where she attended many gospel music concerts with her family. She continued to sing in church choirs and played the piano and organ at home churches throughout most of her life. She also enjoyed singing solos and duets with her sister Vickie Diane Williams and other ensembles in high school, nursing school and different church choirs.
In 1972 while working at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Morrilton she met and married Dr. Charles Wells. They later divorced in 1993 and he preceded her in death in 2010. She retired from nursing in 2006 having worked as an elementary school nurse for Newport Public Schools. She was a member of the Tuckerman First Baptist Church since age 9 and again in 1994 until this time. Church and Bible Study was a large part of her life and often said her most memorable learning experience was the six years she was able to attend Bible Study Fellowship in Conway in the 1970s. She also loved working in her yard, mowing and growing flowers, spending time with her family, nieces, and great-nieces and nephews. She was a charter member of the Trails to Tuckerman Historical Society, a member of Arkansas Retired Teachers Association, and she also loved feeding birds and watching songbirds.
She was preceded in death by her parents, three sisters; Mable, Freda and Mildred Williams.
Survivors are her brother; Tommy Joe Williams of Newport, Vickie Diane Williams of Tuckerman, also surviving are special nieces; Barbara Lynn Williams Walker, Teresa Jo Williams of Gramercy, Louisiana, and Karen Sue Williams Dale and husband Dr. Bob Dale all of Paulina, Louisiana, great-nieces; Lindsay Bowen Hauge and husband Trey Hauge, Sr., Shelby Dale, Abbey Dale, and Robbey Dale all of Paulina, Louisiana, Macy Nicole Burford of Denver, Colorado, and great-great nieces and nephew Trey Hauge, Jr., Hannah Hauge, Cassidy and Amelia Hauge all of Paulina, Louisiana.
