Obituary of Edith Maxine Williams

Edith Maxine Williams

Edith Maxine Williams, known as “Maxine” by family and friends, passed away on September 12, 2023 at the age of 94 years at the University of Arizona Banner hospital in Tucson, Arizona after a short illness.

Maxine was born on April 21, 1929, in Marshall, Texas to Charlie and Cloay Collins and had one older brother, Earl, who had previously passed. The family moved to Tucson when Maxine was 12 years old where she lived much of life with her husband, Noel. After his retirement, they moved to Arizona Sunsites in Pearce, Arizona for several years and then to Taylor, Arizona for several more years. In her elder years after her husband’s passing, she moved to Show Low, Arizona for several years and then back to Pearce where she lived at the time of her death.

Maxine was a strikingly beautiful and outgoing woman who made many close friends in all her stops. As a young woman, she won several dance contests and later became a talented artist with numerous paintings on consignment and for family and friends. She also enjoyed other artistic endeavors such as quilting and collecting antiques, was deeply religious with close ties to her churches over the years, was politically and socially engaged, had become adept at real estate investments and management, and was a loving mother with three children, two sons and a daughter. Although she spent much of her life in Tucson, she was a depression-era baby and East Texas girl at heart who loved her childhood growing up on her grandparents’ farms and then later in life loved living in small towns with a rural atmosphere.

Maxine lost her youngest son, Nolan, several years ago but is survived by her oldest son, Charles Davenport, her daughter Chistina Middleton, eight grandchildren, thirteen great grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren. Maxine was an enormously strong, healthy woman and today we celebrate her long, wonderful life.