Laurie Williams -- comedian's mother (original) (raw)

Laurie McLaurin Williams, an actress, longtime community volunteer and the mother of comedian Robin Williams, died Tuesday of heart failure in her Tiburon home.

Known as Punky to her friends, Mrs. Williams, 78, was a native of Jackson, Miss., and the great-granddaughter of former Mississippi Gov. and U.S. Sen. Anselm Joseph McLaurin.

She was a gifted storyteller, a former fashion model, a lithography student and an accomplished tennis player at the Belvedere Tennis Club. She was active in charitable and volunteer work in Marin County, particularly with the Christian Science church.

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She also worked as a part-time actress, appearing in TV commercials in the 1950s, in a spot for Caltrans promoting its vanpool program and in an exercise video for seniors.

In 1988, she told an interviewer that she was "in awe" of Robin but wanted to get her acting and modeling jobs without his help.

"Why lean on him?" she said. "If I can't do this on my own, forget it." To which her son replied, "I'm so glad she took up modeling, because her second choice was being an Elvis impersonator."

In a verse to his mother, Robin Williams once wrote,

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"Think young and you'll never grow old,

The years will pass you by,

Birthdays are for merrymaking,

Present giving and birthday caking,

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Age is the state of your mind

As the days of your years unfold,

Don't live in the past,

Right up to the last

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Think young and you'll never grow old."

She is survived by three sons, Robin of San Francisco, Todd of Healdsburg and McLaurin of Memphis, and three grandchildren. Her husband of 37 years, former Ford Motor Co. Vice President Robert Williams, died in 1987.

A private memorial service will be held. Memorial donations may be sent to Youth Tennis Advantage, Laney Excellence Program, 6001 Shellmound Ave., Suite #215, Emeryville, CA 94608.

Sep 8, 2001

Chronicle staff writer Steve Rubenstein first joined The Chronicle reporting staff in 1976. He has been a metro reporter, a columnist, a reviewer and a feature writer. He left the staff in 2009 to teach elementary school and returned to the staff in 2015. He is married, has a son and a daughter and lives in San Francisco. He is a cyclist and a harmonica player, occasionally at the same time.