She was born in Maysfield, Texas, on March 26, 1876, to Thomas Herbert and Emma Massengale Williams. She was a
collateral descendant of the
Marquis de Lafayette. Some of her ancestors had been planters in
South Carolina in the
antebellum era; later, her father, a veteran of the
Confederacy, started a plantation in
Milam County. Williams was an instructor at the University of Texas from 1925 to 1951. She researched and wrote about the
Alamo, of which she was considered a foremost authority, and
Sam Houston. Portions of the dissertation were published in
Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1933 and 1934. She collaborated with Barker on
The Writings of Sam Houston; she is credited with convincing Houston's descendants to provide access to documents. Williams was a
Presbyterian and a
Democrat. Williams died in
Austin on April 14, 1958. She had been working on a biography of Sam Houston. She was buried near her hometown of Maysfield, Texas in the Little River Cemetery. == Memberships ==