Lillian McConnell: Merry Survivor

1859 - 1929

Lillian, on her back porch.

      Lillian McConnell was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 28, 1859, the daughter of Lawrence McConnell and Mary Ann Moore. She was the 5th of 6 children and had siblings: Richard (1845), Juliette (1848), Margaret (1852), Mary Jane (1853) and Cary (1860). Her father was a habitual drunkard, was not supporting the family and had been jailed several times for beating his wife and eldest son. In 1864, Mary sought a divorce from Lawrence and 15-year old Juliette testified against her father.

      By 1870, the family was divorced. Mary Ann had married Edgar Hunt of Madison, who had 3 children of his own from an earlier marriage. Richard, Lillie and Cary were also living in the household. However, Lillie (age 11) is also listed as residing with her sister Maggie (age 19), who had married Isaac Taad/Teede. Her sister Julia, age 21, had married George Lyford and had a daughter. Her sister, Mary, age 16, was working in a Madison household as a domestic servant. It appears that the sons still lived with their mother, but maybe none of the daughters!
   
      In 1880, Lillian married Frank Williams in Madison, Wisconsin. They later lived in Olney, Illinois, and Waukegan, Illinois, where they raised their 2 biological children and their adopted daughter Maggie. Their son, George Allen Williams, was a baseball player in the minor leagues. He worked as a weaver in a fence factory and as a laborer for American Steel and Wire. His nickname was "Cinders", because he was a wire-thrower at a wire mill in North Chicago. George fought in World War I, as a corporal, in the Illinois 56th Infantry.  He married his wife Anna in 1919, although they never had children. After about 1930, he developed Parkinson's  disease and largely took to bed, according to Aunt Dorothy.
   
      Lillian was widowed in November 1922, when her husband Frank died. At the time, her son George was living next door to her and her daughter Nellie Crooks was living in Chicago with her husband Charlie, son Ray and daughter Dorothy! When Charlie died on December 22, 1926, in Chicago, Nellie and her 3 children moved in with Lillian at 728 Ash Street. Soon after, the upstairs was made into an apartment for daughter Maggie, whom we knew as Aunt Monie, and her husband, Ozzie Eide! (We visited Monie and Ozzie in Port Townsend, Washington. They had a wonderful lot backing up to Puget Sound!)

      Lillian died on December 19, 1929, age 70, in Waukegan, Illinois. She died in Victory Memorial Hospital the day after an operation to remove gallstones from the common bile duct. She had been in failing health for some time prior to the operation and the cause of death was listed as heart disease (myocarditis). She is buried in North Shore Garden of Memories next to her husband and our grandparents, Nellie Williams and Charles Crooks.

      Dad had memories of Lillie chasing the kids around the kitchen with a broom and cackling with merriment!