Nellie Reed Williams was born sometime between October 16 and October 19, in 1885, in Waukegan or North Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Frank Dunn Williams and Lillian McConnell. She had 1 sibling, George Allen Williams (1887), who married Anna Mead, but never had children. According to Aunt Dorothy, Annie did not get along with Nellie. Because Nellie just had the one sibling and he did not have children, Dad did not have any first cousins on his Mom's side.
In 1904, Nellie was a senior at Waukegan High School, where she played right guard on the girls' basketball team. In the Senior Prophecy, they predicted "her horror of laughter and merriment will grow as the years slip by and she will devote herself to prayer and repentance". She was listed in the "Want Ads" as wanting lessons in boxing! Since all of her pictures show her with a gentle smile on her face, I am certain these comments were ironic.
Nellie worked as a teacher at Dudley elementary school and lived with her parents in Waukegan until she married Charles Henry Crooks in February, 1920.
According to Aunt Dorothy, Nellie dated a man named Jim Reardon before she married Charles. Her mother Lillian did not want her to marry Jim, however, because he was Catholic. Aunt Dorothy also said that Nellie was Methodist, but only went to church on holidays. Evidently, the family switched to the Episcopalian Church because Dad had tangled with another boy at the Methodist Sunday school! When Nellie was ill, she told Dad and Aunt Dorothy, "I hope you get back in the Methodist church before I die".
When Nellie's husband, Charles, died in December, 1926, Nellie and her 3 children (Ray, Dorothy, George) moved in with Nellie's mother at 728 Ash Street in Waukegan. Nellie's brother George lived immediately next door at 724 Ash. (These 2 properties were both jointly purchased by Nellie and George about 1910-1916, although 728 Ash was transferred to Nellie's mother after Nellie married.) Even though George had health issues, he was the closest person to a father figure for Dad... Dad's grandmother, Lillian (McConnell) Williams, died in December, 1929, just 3 years after Nellie and her kids moved in.
In 1930, Nellie was working as a bookkeeper at the Waukegan county courthouse. She was initially the only female there, found the work environment coarse and decided to return to teaching. She also received $40 per month as rent from Aunt Monie and Uncle Ozzie, who lived in the upstairs apartment. In 1940, Nellie had some additional income because Dad was working as an usher in a theater while attending college and Aunt Dorothy was working as a telephone operator!
Nellie died November 25, 1959, age 74, in Waukegan, after having strokes and being in a nursing home. She is buried in North Shore Garden of Memories cemetery in North Chicago, next to her husband.
Dad's McFarland cousins said that Nell really liked the dishes that Charlie brought back from the Philippines for his sister Helen's wedding. Charlie said she could have had them too if she had agreed to marry him before he left for the Philippines. (If so, they knew each other longer than I had realized!) When Charlie got back, Nellie visited him and his brother Ray asked if she was going to break his heart a second time and she said "no"... When Charlie died less than 7 years after their marriage, she dated Jim Reardon again and brought him to visit her sister-in-law, Helen Crooks McFarland. Dad's McFarland cousins said Jim was very nice and owned a plant that made women's clothing. Jim was Nellie's boyfriend, but the relationship was limited.
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