Mr. Denny Williams of the Turkey Creek Community was pronounced deceased at 5:11 p.m. Saturday afternoon May 20, 2023 after becoming ill at his Turkey Creek Highway home. Smith County E-911 dispatched an ambulance to the family home at 4:41 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Mr. Williams was 65.
Mr. Williams will be cremated at the Cumberland Family Services in Algood.
The family will conduct a memorial service at 11 a.m. Saturday morning May 27th from the Blue Room at the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home.
Visitation will be at Sanderson in Carthage from 10 a.m. until the services at 11 a.m.
There will be a military chapel tribute by American Legion Post 57 of Carthage preceding the service.
The eldest of two children, a son and a daughter, he was the son of the late Walter Ray Williams and Sandra “Sandy” Lee Stewart Williams who died December 3, 2017 at the age of 88 and was born Darrel Blaine Williams in Taft in Kern County, California on December 3, 1957.
Mr. Williams was a 1975 recipient of his General Education Degree.
He proudly served our country and nation with the United States Marines Corp, first being inducted on March 15, 1976 and honorably discharged at Camp Pendleton, California on March 3, 1979 with the rank of Corporal and for his peacetime service he was awarded the Good Conduct Medal. His total service was two years, eleven months and sixteen days.
In Reno, Nevada on August 29, 1993 he was united in marriage to Merced, California resident, the former Edna Lueltha McKay. Minister Donald R. Cleary officiated the ceremony.
The Williams family relocated to Smith County from Lindsay, California in 2007, first living on Lakeside Drive in the Defeated Creek Community before purchasing their mini-farm in the Turkey Creek Community.
In 2021 Mr. Williams retired from the William L. Bonnell Co. in Gordonsville where he was employed in the shipping department as a metal mover.
He was a non-denominational Christian.
Surviving in addition to his wife Edna of almost thirty years are seven children, Cecil McLain and wife Katheryn of Modesto, California, Mellisa Payne of the Defeated Creek Community, Carole Lewis and husband Michael of San Antonio, Texas, Cassandra Ulrich of Carthage, Christian Rose and wife Elizabeth of Franklin, Kentucky, Joshua Williams and wife Heather of the Turkey Creek Community, Walter Williams and wife Rachel of Springville, California; sister, Kimberly Bassett of Barnsdall, Oklahoma; twenty seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
