Mrs. Marshall Williams
She ranks as North Carolina's outstanding
painter of portraits today, and her work is
to be found in many towns in the state. She
also has distinguished herself along other
linens ais well.
THIS ELECT lady, who has ren¬
dered such distinguished service to
her native state on a wide variety
of fields of public service, traces her
ancestry back to early Colonial duys.
The fact that her father was Captain
L. T. Hicks of the 20th North Caro¬
lina and was a gallant Confederate sol¬
dier, may have served to inspire not
only her, but also the four sons she
gave to the service of their country.
Her father was a lineal descendant
of Thomas Hicks, for many years a
member of the Provincial Congress,
and a Captain in the Revolutionary
army under Washington. Her mother
was a daughter of Reverend Alexan¬
der Molver, noted Presbyterian divino,
a graduate of Union Seminary, Rich¬
mond. Ya., whose uuccstors came to
Carolina at the same time with Flora
Macdonald.
Was Born in Faison
Mrs. Williams was born at I’aison,
in ancient Duplin in I860 and took
her academic education at Faison
Academy and at St. Mary’s at Ra¬
leigh. In her young womanhood she
was a social favorite and one of the
belles of the state; and just a few
gentlemen, hero and there, can he
found who will say that this charac¬
teristic has adhered to her throughout,
all the years. While yet in her ’toons
she was married to Marshall Wil¬
liams, president of the Bank of Fai¬
son and business man of affairs, who
was himself a near kinsman of the
internationally known portrait paint¬
er, .lames McNeill Whistler, and of
Governor Benjamin Williams, who
granted a pardon to John Wright
Stanly after his fatal duel with Gov¬
ernor Richard Dobb- Spaight.
Artists, like poets, are born, not
made; and drawing had been her hob¬
by since childhood. She was one of
the outstanding art students during
her undergraduate days at St. Alary’s.
Friends, noting her evident natural
gift, suggested that she devote her
genius to the field of portraiture, and
•he studied art first under Fisher at
Washington and later under the fa¬
mous Alexander of New York City.
By R. C. LAWRENCE
Soon her great genius with the brush
brought her into state-wide notice on
the field of portrait painting, and
later her reputation extended, so that
today she lias become one of the fore¬
most painters of portraits on the field
of the South.
In the State Building at Raleigh
arc to be found many of her lifelike
portraits of distinguished lawyers and
irists. The walls of the Confederate
useum at Richmond are ndorned
with numerous examples of her artis¬
tic geniu.-. Many samples of her ex¬
cellent work may be found at the
University of North Carolina, at
Wake Forest. College and other load¬
ing educational institutions. In 1931
she exhibited a collection of some
forty Negro plantation types and
scenes from plantation life at Duke
University, where her work forms an
integral part of its permanent, collec¬
tion of art. subjects. She has been
repeatedly selected by the bars of Rob¬
eson, Duplin. Sampson, Cumberland
and Harnett counties to execute por¬
traits of distinguished lawyers and
jurists to he hung upon the walls of
the courthouses of these counties; por¬
traits which numbered former gover¬
nors and Supreme Court justices as
well as other distinguished jurists and
private practitioners.
She has been selected by a number
of colleges to execute portraits of ben¬
efactors of these institutions, and
while she does not. seek to hide nor
undertake to conceal the fact she is
seventy-seven years young, her eye is
not yet dimmed nor her natural force
abated; and she can still execute a
portrait with all the fidelity to life
which she possessed in earlier life.
Other Useful Service
Notwithstanding the cares of a large
and growing family, tho demands of
art, and the pressure of her social du¬
ties and obligations, this able and ener¬
getic woman has found the time aud
has possessed the fine ability to engage
in a wide variety of most useful pub¬
lic service. Dipping just a little into
politics (us women sometimes will)
she served for many years ns a mem¬
ber of the State Democratic Execu¬
tive Committee; and she was a Dele-
gatc-at-lorgc to the Democratic Na¬
tional Convention which met at Phila¬
delphia in 1936. She served the cause
of education as Chairman of the
Board of Trustees of Faison High
School ; and the cause of humanity
as a member of the Board of Direc¬
tors of tho State Hospital at Ra¬
leigh. on which she rendered long and
highly valuable service.
The descendant of a Revolutionary
soldier, the daughter of a Confederate
veteran, she is still an unreconstruct¬
ed rebel, and the strains of “Dixie”
or tho "Bonnie Blue Flag” never fails
to find an echo in her heart. She also
Ls something of an authority on Con¬
federate military history and on the
exploits of Lee and Jackson. She ha.-
been active since early life in the ac¬
tivities of the United Daughters of
the Confederacy, in which orgnnixn-
( Coni in ued on page limtly-niut)
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