A Lifetime A Legacy, Bill Williams: The Friendly Butcher Was a War Hero
Bill Williams as a Navy inductee in 1941.
Generations of visitors to the Jersey Shore have always enjoyed a feeling of being comfortable once they return: that things will be exactly as they remember them. Chances are that Bill Williams fell into that category. After all, Williams was a neighborhood butcher as well as a fixture in Avalon for nearly a half-century at The Avalon Market and Schimek’s 21st Street Market.
The popular and gregarious Williams passed away Feb. 6, at the age of 97.
Although you knew his face and his welcoming smile, there is probably a lot about Bill Williams that you did not know. While he was as friendly as they come, he never spent a lot of time talking about himself.
Who could have known that Williams was a war hero? That he participated in 11 first-wave landings in the South Pacific in World War II? Or that after the war he attended Princeton University, and was a regular volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, and was a church deacon?
Williams was born in Philadelphia and was raised in Collingdale, Pa. One of nine siblings, he often took care of his brothers and sisters while growing up. This trait of caring would last his lifetime. In his high school yearbook, Williams was remembered for “his sincerity and placid disposition … revealed by his warm, contagious smile.”
Williams was on his way to the shore on Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Upon hearing the news, he and his friends turned their car around and headed to the nearest recruiting station. Since it was a Sunday, they would have to wait until the next day to enlist. At the same time, his mother had an unforeseen accident – resulting in a slight delay in his signing up for the Navy while he tended to her care. Once she was well, he fulfilled his calling for military service.
After the war, Williams worked as a meat cutter for the American Stores (now Acme Markets) and served as a sales supervisor for Medford Meats. Eventually he and his wife, Beverly, would settle in Wildwood Crest. No one is sure how or why, but at some point in the 1960s Williams would end up at the 21st Street Market in Avalon – or “Lowell’s” as it was referred to by most locals. Lowell Schimek had taken over the space on 21st Street formally occupied by the A&P Market. This was a time when locals and visitors completed their shopping in town at places like Sprowles Food Market, Sam’s Market, Avalon Super Market or Lowell’s. All were full-service grocers with full meat departments.
Williams was one of two full-time butchers who served customers year-round at Lowell’s, where he was known as “Bill the Butcher” – and that trademark smile and personality made him an instant favorite of customers who came back year after year.
When Schimek passed away in May of 1976, Williams moved on to the Texas Avenue Food Market in Cape May, where he assumed the position of manager. Even now, decades later, Texas Avenue Market owner Greg Giancola remembers his late friend as “our most outstanding and hardest-working employee. I’m not sure that he ever missed a day of work in more than a dozen years.” And his affinity with customers earned him the nickname “Uncle Bill.”
Williams stayed at Texas Avenue Market until it closed around 1987. At that time, Williams considered himself retired.
Retired, that is until a young Jim Deever, a member of the Genuardi family, purchased the old Avalon Super Market on Dune Drive. Williams had been recommended to Deever through several grocery circles. Deever had visions of bringing a first-class, full-service market back to Avalon. And that included a top-notch butcher behind the meat counter.
Deever reached out to Williams, who explained that while he was thankful for the thought, he was happily retired. Despite his supposed lack of interest, Williams agreed to meet Deever for breakfast at Sullivan’s – business central for generations in Avalon. The two longtime grocerymen hit it off immediately, and Williams’ retirement evolved from “Thanks but no thanks” into “How about one or two days a week?” Suddenly “Uncle Bill” found himself back in a familiar spot: behind a meat counter in Avalon.
Deever’s memories are much like those of Giancola.
“We just loved having him around,” Deever says. “He became part of our family for 25 years; he was super with customers. There were people who still remembered him from Lowell’s and came to see him because they trusted him. Bill was a one-in-a-million person. He taught me, he taught everyone, so much.”
His “teachings” included apprenticing more than 15 butchers and assistants at Avalon Market. And the work ethic that was a trademark at Texas Avenue Market followed him back to Avalon.
“The man never sat down,” adds Deever. “Never, not even for lunch. The only time I can remember him sitting down was when he came over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t know how he did it.”
Father time finally made retirement a reality several years ago. And Uncle Bill assumed his new position on his front porch in Wildwood Crest in his sunglasses, with an America flag, a glass of iced tea and the Phillies game on the radio. Not surprising, his engaging personality made him a neighborhood favorite if not a celebrity.
While he loved his work and his customers, there was no greater love in his life than his wife and daughters. He constantly bragged about their successes and “wonderful families.” He and Beverly enjoyed nights dancing at Cozy Morley’s Club Avalon. And if his radio wasn’t tuned to a Phillies game, it was often tuned to “Fridays with Frank” and “Sunday with Sinatra.”
Despite losing all three of his beloved girls, Williams never wavered in his faith in God or life. “Granddad continued to embrace life with strength, courage, love and hope,” according to granddaughter Kristin Wilkinson.
Williams lived a life of love and compassion and as such will be missed by many. He also takes his place as one of the indelible characters in Avalon’s history who helped make it the kind of place that you looked forward to visiting … and no doubt being greeted by people like Bill Williams.