Sister Leona Williams, a member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence for more than six decades and a retired librarian, died May 26 of a heart attack at Future Care Cherrywood Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Reisterstown. She was 88.
Ann Louise Williams was born in Tyler, Texas. She later moved with her family to Spokane, Wash., where she graduated from North Central High School.
She earned a bachelor's degree from Holy Names College in Spokane and traveled to Baltimore in 1944 when she entered the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
She professed her vows in 1947 and subsequently taught middle school students at St. Monica, St. Francis Xavier and St. Pius V parochial schools in Baltimore and in Washington.
After finding that she didn't enjoy teaching, Sister Leona went to work as an office assistant at Mount Providence Junior College in Catonsville.
Sister Leona earned a master's degree in library science from Catholic University of America in Washington and was assigned as a reference librarian to St. Frances Academy in East Baltimore.
From 1967 until retiring in 1997 to her order's motherhouse, Sister Leona was a technical service and reference librarian at Bishop England High School in Charleston, S.C.
During her years in Charleston, she worked with the needy and in the Diocesan Migrant Program.
After retiring, Sister Leona worked in her order's archives in Catonsville as a research assistant.
A Mass of Christian burial was offered Wednesday.
There are no survivors.