THIS DAY IN WILLIAMS FAMILY HISTORY

Vera Mae Williams

Born 23 September 1917

The year 1917 was notable in history for both political and social wars. On April 6^th the United States joined their allies fighting in Europe in what came to be known as the Great War or World War I.  At the same time a social battle on American soil was being waged. On August 28th in Washington D.C. ten women were arrested and jailed for picketing the White House demanding female voting rights.  In the midst of the first world war and the turmoil of social injustice, in a tiny, two-room farmhouse in the rural community of Thomas, a few miles southwest of Blackfoot, Idaho, Vera Louie Marsden and Joseph Elmer Williams welcomed their second child and first daughter. The baby arrived at sunrise on Sunday, September 23, 1917.  Elmer named her Vera after her mother, and May after Vera’s mother, Clara May Elsmore Marsden. When Vera May started school and learned to print her name, the teacher insisted that M-a-y was the name of a month, not a girl, and taught her to spell it M-a-e.   And that is how she was known the rest of her life.