Helen T. Williams

Helen Therese Williams, 81, passed away peacefully after midnight on Saturday, September 12 in Port Jefferson, NY from prolonged Parkinson’s Disease after 5 comfortable years in the care of her daughter and son-in-law.

Born on July 3, 1939 in Brooklyn, 5 minutes before her twin sister ,Rose Ann Fallon, they grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens with their parents Catherine and Thomas Gannon. Catherine was school teacher and Thomas was a Principal in the New York City Schools.

Helen graduated from St. Angela High School and St. John’s University with a BS in Elementary Education. She earned her Master’s Degree in Education from Hunter College and then taught for over 30 years. She was a second grade school teacher at Hauppauge Schools’ Bretton Woods Elementary School and a reading specialist at the Middle Country Schools’ Bicycle Path Elementary School

Helen married Richard Thomas Williams (decd. May 4, 1991) on July 6, 1963 in a joint wedding ceremony with her twin sister, Rose Ann, and husband John Fallon. With Richard, she had two children, Kathleen Helen Bucaria and Richard Thomas Williams Jr.

Active in the Smithtown community, she was an original member of the Smithtown PEO, and also part of the AAUW, Garden Club, Historical Society, and on the board of the Arts Council. She loved being part of community service events at Deepwell’s in St. James and giving House & Garden tours of beautiful houses in Smithtown. Her favorite pastime was playing tennis and was a longtime member of the Edgewood Corner’s Tennis Club and the Nissequogue Golf Club. She traveled to Hawaii, Japan, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, and France.

She is survived by her sister, Rose Ann Fallon, brother in law, John Fallon, sister-in-law, Mary Ann Kerlin, her daughter Kathleen Bucaria and family – Frank Bucaria (son-in-law), Kristen Fletcher, (granddaughter)and her husband Dan Fletcher, Patrick Bucaria (grandson), her son Richard Williams Jr. and family – Blakely Williams (daughter-in-law) and grandsons, Brayden, Blaine, and Blake Williams.