Rev. O. W. Williams

O. W. Williams was born May 3, 1919. He was the thirteenth of fourteen children born to Wesley and Ida Shepherd Williams in the hills of Tennessee.

As a teenager, he met and married Violet Lynch. God blessed them with sixty-seven years and nine months of marriage before He took Violet home to be with Him. He also blessed them with three beautiful daughters: Virginia, Laverne, and Demi. On September 23, 2005, Brother Williams married Doris Gary.

In 1940 at the age of twenty-one, Brother Williams and his family attended service at a one-room school house. There he wept and repented of his sins. In Cane Creek, Brother Stubblefield baptized him in the lovely name of Jesus Christ. After that, the Williams family started attending a community service at a place called Upper Sinking. During this revival, God filled him with the Holy Ghost.

Next, the Williams moved to Nashville, then on to Memphis, where they became members of the First Pentecostal Church with Pastor E.E. McNatt.

During the first decade of Brother Williams’ ministry, three churches were started in Tennessee. In 1945, in Ridgely, Tennessee, he was given approval to take the church to a building that had been vacant for some time. Brother Greer, with funds provided by one of his friends, bought the building, and there Brother Williams began his pastoral responsibilities. Later a building became available in Tiptonville, a few miles away, and he began to preach there also.

Near the end of Brother Williams’ time in Ridgely, God began to deal with him about Union City, some thirty-one miles away. He experienced many challenges in building the church in Union City. However, God always had a plan. Brother Williams’s faith was being built through each obstacle.

While in Tennessee, O. W. Williams was elected to several district offices, including presbyter. In 1953 he felt the call to go to Kilgore, Texas, and accepted the pastorate there. He served in Kilgore for six years before moving to Houston. In Houston a church was built that seated 1,100 people.

For fourteen years the Williams labored at Stonewall, until the fellow brethren of Texas elected him to the office of district superintendent. It was during his tenure that the current tabernacle on the campgrounds in Lufkin, Texas, was built.

Brother Williams served as superintendent for three terms. At the end of the third term, he felt a call back to pastoral ministry. In December 1976 he assumed the pastorate of Eastview United Pentecostal Church in Lufkin.

He passed from this life on September 21, 2018.