Mary Rachel - "Sis" "Mom" and "Gramma" - was born November 2, 1918, to Eddy Arnold and Mary Rachel (Jackson) Arnold in Valentine, Nebraska. She was reared along with her two sisters on the family homestead at Purdum, Nebraska, attended a one-room school through eighth grade and the McCook, Nebraska, boarding school through high school.
As a young lady she helped her mother and father with farm chores, including milking, by hand, a number of cows. She rode her horse, "Pal," to school and on cattle drives. She drove horse teams and helped with farming and haying using horse drawn machinery. At age 19 she enrolled at the New Mexico State College in Las Cruces and graduated with a degree in home economics.
Joining the Presbyterian student group, she met Richard F. "Dick" Williams, an engineering student at the college. They married in September 1942. While Dick finished engineering Mary Rachel taught grade school in Misilla, New Mexico. They made their home in an adobe cabin.
After Dick's graduation and commissioning in the U.S. Navy she spent the war years at locations around the country in military housing anxiously waiting for VJ-Day and Dicks' return. In February 1946, during a winter storm in Rhode Island, she rode to the hospital in the back of a duce-and-a-half, a military vehicle, to give birth to their first son, Charles. Dick was still at sea and received a telegram announcing the birth.
Mary Rachel and Dick moved to Detroit, Michigan, after the war. Eddy was born in 1947. Roger was born in 1948.
Mary Rachel taught at Hunter Elementary school near Wyandotte, Michigan. Roger was in her first-grade class. Kenneth was born in 1956, just before the family moved to Midland, Michigan. In 1959, the family left Michigan and moved to Idaho. Because Dick was working, Mary Rachel drove the three boys, a baby, a dog and a cat from Michigan to Idaho, with a six-month stay at the farm in Nebraska.
In Idaho, Mary Rachel settled into teaching and Dick into his engineering profession, founding Alpha Engineers, an industrial consulting firm. Mary Rachel taught elementary school in Jerome, and in Pocatello at Bonneville Elementary, and Grace Lutheran School. Mary Rachel retired in 1984, after more than 25 years of teaching.
Mary Rachel and Dick loved God's creation, the Idaho backcountry, and shared many summer weekends and vacations with their boys and friends camping, hiking and climbing Idaho's mountains and wilderness. In 1960, Mary Rachel and Dick climbed the Grand Teton with famed Idaho mountaineer Jake Breitenbach. Mary Rachel, Dick and sons climbed Mount Borah and many of the highest peaks in Idaho. Mary Rachel loved to catch and cook wild trout for her family. She backpacked with the family and friends to countless secret wilderness lakes and streams.
In 1985, Mary Rachel and Dick moved to Portland, Oregon, for two years then to Springer, New Mexico, where Dick retired from engineering. Taking up a second career in publishing, Mary Rachel and Dick purchased the Springer bi-weekly paper business and worked together for another four years until Dick's death in 1991. Mary Rachel moved back to Pocatello to be near her sons and enjoyed her remaining years with her growing family. During this time she enjoyed several trips, one to Europe with her granddaughter, Megan, and a railroad trip across Canada. Each summer, including this last one, she would travel with her son, Eddy, to spend two to three weeks at the family farm in Nebraska.
Mary Rachel is survived by her sister, Lois, in Purdum, Nebraska; her sons, Charles Williams (Marie), Eddy Williams and Roger Williams (Terry), all of Pocatello. Grandchildren include Richard Williams (Shelley), Idaho Falls, John Williams, Polson, Mont., Megan Beglinger (Matt), Boise, Mark Williams, Reno, Eric Williams (Ashley), Moscow, Morgan Sanders (Joanne), Sonoma, Calif., Rebecca Pierce, Pocatello, Martin Sanders (Jennifer), Pocatello. Great-grandchildren include Mariah, Andrew, Ryan, Sarah, Benjamin, Madison, Ethan, Eli, Tara, Corine, Dylan, Calvin, Mathieu, Renee, Hadlee and four great-great-grandchildren, Lilla, Kamri, Carter, and Shane. Mary Rachel was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Margaret, her husband, Dick, and one son, Kenneth Eric Williams.
Mary Rachel was buried next to her husband, Richard R. Williams and son Kenneth Eric Williams at the Barton Flat Cemetery.
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