Huntington Civil Rights Advocate, Artist Una Joyce Williams Remembered For Decades Of Service

HUNTINGTON, NY — For more than six decades, Una Joyce Williams devoted her life to serving others — whether advocating for civil rights, helping veterans and seniors through social work, opening her home to people in need, or creating art meant to preserve history and peace.

Williams, a longtime Huntington resident, civil rights activist, psychiatric social worker, artist and community volunteer, died April 20 in Huntington at age 91.

Williams was predeceased by her parents; her sister, Genevieve Lee Harris; her brother, Samuel Joseph Ellis; her grandson, Jacob Daniel Hainey; and former husband John Williams.

She is survived by her children Wendy Morris, Christopher Ellis Williams and Sharon Elizabeth Collins; grandchildren Amber Marie Hainey, Alyssa Rose Jones, Allie Hainey, John Fitzgerald Collins Jr. and James Patrick Collins; and great-grandchildren McKenna Hainey, Aidan Collins, Emma Hainey, Elliott Jones, Kaylee Collins, Oliver Jones and Anthony Collins.

Her youngest daughter, Wendy Morris, 66, said her mother’s life was defined by persistence, compassion and an unwavering commitment to equality — even during periods when her activism made her family targets of criticism.

“Strong-willed, strong-minded and independent,” Morris said. “We were called names because my mother was really working with the Town of Huntington and housing for minorities in Huntington. People really did not like that in the early ’70s. But she stuck to it and didn’t let that stop her at all.”

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1934, Williams was the eldest daughter of Samuel W. Ellis and Frances Josephine Ellis. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, during the height of segregation, an experience that would deeply shape her worldview and eventually place her alongside some of the most important civil rights efforts of the 1960s.

After graduating from the University of Alabama in 1957, she earned a master’s degree in social work from Adelphi University in 1963. She went on to build a career centered on advocacy and public service, beginning with senior citizen and community programs in Huntington and Port Jefferson before eventually serving as a psychiatric social worker at the Northport VA Medical Center for more than three decades.

Family members say her activism and service extended far beyond her professional work.

“She just was really interested in wanting to help the effort with Martin Luther King,” Morris said. “That was a big deal for her.”

Williams attended the March on Washington in 1963 and later participated in the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama in 1965. She also became active in Huntington’s local civil rights movement, including participating in Huntington’s “March for Freedom” demonstrations supporting racial equality and housing rights.

Her daughter recalled the emotional impact the civil rights movement had on their household growing up.

“The day that Martin Luther King got assassinated, we came home from school and she was so upset she flew the flag upside down,” Morris said. “She did a lot of things that were a little over the top for the neighborhood.”

Morris said her mother’s activism sometimes created tension within both the community and extended family, especially because Williams’ beliefs sharply differed from many people around her during her upbringing in the South.

“She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and her beliefs were very far from most of the people there at the time,” Morris said.

Williams’ commitment to equality was not limited to marches and demonstrations. Morris said the family home regularly became a refuge for people in need.

“We always had people who were homeless staying in our house,” she said. “My mom would let them stay at our house for unknown periods of time. She was always kind of helping people.”

Her activism also extended into women’s rights movements during the 1960s and 1970s, when she advocated for abortion rights.

“She would take us to all her marches," Morris said. "I’ve got a picture of her pushing a baby buggy with us in it.”

One memory especially remained with Morris decades later — a newspaper photograph taken during a Huntington civil rights event showing her sitting beside a Black child while adults marched nearby.

“A journalist took a picture of me and a little girl sitting on the steps of the podium,” Morris said. “The little girl I was with was Black, and they did this whole article about two little girls, one Black and one white, just sitting together while the adults marched for civil rights.”

Alongside activism, Williams spent decades working in social services throughout Long Island. She served as director of the Town of Huntington Senior Citizen Program during the 1960s. She later worked with senior citizens in Port Jefferson before beginning her career at the Northport VA Medical Center in 1974.

At the VA, Williams worked closely with veterans and their families as a psychiatric social worker while also helping organize a choir program for patients.

Outside of social work and activism, Williams built an extraordinary creative life through painting, music, genealogy and stamp collecting.

Family members estimate she created well over 96 paintings during her lifetime, many of which were gifted to family, friends and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington.

“She painted just so much,” Morris said. “Very creative. Absolutely very creative.”

Her daughter described Williams as the family’s “ancestry guru,” explaining that she spent years researching relatives dating back to the Revolutionary War and Civil War eras.

“She made books where you could look at the stamp and learn the history behind it,” Morris said. “She would put information about Yellowstone National Park next to a Yellowstone stamp so people could learn the history. She was always looking for information so she could teach people something.”

Her intellectual curiosity stretched back decades. While attending the University of Alabama, Williams participated in a Methodist youth work camp in Cuba during the summer of 1956, helping repair church and children’s camp facilities alongside American and Cuban students.

“She really, really liked that summer,” Morris said while reading from her mother’s writings about the experience.

Williams remained deeply connected to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington for approximately 60 years. Over time, one of her most lasting contributions became the fellowship’s memorial garden on Browns Road.

According to Morris, the area was once overgrown woods behind the fellowship property where children played on an old swing set. Beginning in the late 1970s, Williams helped transform the space into a peaceful memorial garden through years of volunteer work and landscaping efforts.

“That memorial garden was one of her really huge accomplishments,” Morris said. "Mom was a big part of that.”

The garden remains open to visitors today and features memorials honoring numerous community members, including a bench dedicated to Mariah Carey’s father, Al Carey. Morris said Williams once sang in the fellowship choir alongside Mariah Carey’s mother.

Williams’ own family now plans to place a memorial bench in the garden in her honor.

The idea was inspired in part by a memorial bench Morris and her family previously created after the death of her son, California firefighter Jacob Hainey, who died in an ATV accident in 2024 at age 40.

“We thought it would be great too to do for my mom and put the bench at the Unitarian fellowship,” Morris said.

In her final years, Williams experienced dementia, though Morris said the disease never erased the enormous legacy she built across generations of family, veterans, activists and Huntington residents.

“She wouldn’t want anybody to know she had dementia,” Morris said. “It’s a terrible disease.”

As Morris continues sorting through decades of artwork, journals, archival documents, stamps and family history, she said she increasingly realizes the depth of her mother’s impact.

“She was just such a museum of history,” Morris said.

A memorial service is scheduled for Sept. 26 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington.

In lieu of flowers, the family is accepting donations toward a memorial bench in Williams’ honor to be placed in the fellowship garden she helped build.