Class of 1943
1943 Graduation EditionPerry Daily Journal
Bessie Williams
To speed the war effort along, Bessie Catherine Williams is planning to enter some sort of defense work after her graduation this spring. She is 17 years old, the daughter of Mrs. Etta Williams of 512 Firs street.
Bessie was born in Van Buren, Ark., but has called Perry her home for the past 14 years. She attended no schools other than Perry’s. A brother is employed by Boeing in Wichita and two others are in the U. S. navy.
A member of the national honor society. Bessie is president of her homeroom class.
Bess Catherine (Williams) Kime
June 8, 1925 – September 21, 2002
Bess Kime, 77, of Perry, was born on June 8, 1925, in Van Buren, Arkansas and died Saturday evening, September 21, 2002, at Integris Baptist Hospital in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of John Virgil and Etta Faye (Buster) Williams.
Bess was valedictorian of her 1943 graduating class at Perry High School. She retired as an insurance clerk for Charles Machine Works and was a member of the First Baptist Church where she was a Sunday School Teacher for 60 years. Bess enjoyed cats, bicycling and was an avid bowler. She won numerous medals in the Oklahoma Senior Olympics.
Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, September 25, 2002, at the First Baptist Church of Perry with the Rev. Buddy Hunt officiating. Burial will follow at Grace Hill Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the First Baptist Church of Perry or the Humane Society of Stillwater.
Bess is survived by two daughters, Judy Haxton and her husband Paul, of Stillwater, Oklahoma and Kathy Bridges and her husband Larry, of Perry, Oklahoma; one son, Steve Kime and his wife Debbie, of Tulsa, Oklahoma; three brothers, Thell Williams of California, Velmer Williams of Wichita, Kansas and Denver Williams of Del City, Oklahoma; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Her parents and eight brothers and sisters preceded her in death.