Editor’s note: This is one of a continuing online series of profiles of the more than 12,000 Hoosiers who have died from COVID-19. The stories are from 12 Indiana newspapers, including The Republic, who collaborated to create the collection to highlight the tremendous loss that the pandemic has created. The series appears daily at therepublic.com.
Name: Mike “Scully” Williams
Town: Evansville
Age: 69
Died: June 12, 2020
Neighbors didn’t just like Mike “Scully” Williams; they were impressed by him. In their quiet, older, working-class neighborhood, they couldn’t help but notice his refined tastes in music and clothes. His impeccable manners.
A man of such decorum, said Bill Johnson, Williams’ next-door neighbor for a decade. Johnson still can’t believe his neighbor died of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Johnson paused for words to describe the 69-year-old Williams — reserved, dignified. An unfailingly friendly neighbor. The men bonded over their shared service in the U.S. Army. Williams, who had retired from a 35-year career at Mead Johnson, was a former commander of the Otis Stone American Legion Post 354. He needed no prompting to talk about that.
“Neighbors didn’t just like Mike “Scully” Williams; they were impressed by him. In their quiet, older, working-class neighborhood, they couldn’t help but notice his refined tastes in music and clothes. His impeccable manners.
A man of such decorum, said Bill Johnson, Williams’ next-door neighbor for a decade. Johnson still can’t believe his neighbor was Vanderburgh County’s fifth resident to die of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Johnson paused for words to describe the 69-year-old Williams — reserved, dignified. An unfailingly friendly neighbor. The men bonded over their shared service in the U.S. Army. Williams, who had retired from a 35-year career at Mead Johnson, was a former commander of the Otis Stone American Legion Post 354. He needed no prompting to talk about that.
Anything else? Johnson’s eyes opened wider. He lowered his voice.
“Very snazzy dresser,” he said.
“When (Williams) would go places he would be decked — I mean, he wore like, three-piece, almost like tailored suits,” he said.
Johnson has lived all over, he said. Germany. Colorado. Kentucky, and a few other places. He’s had a lot of neighbors over the years. His voice faltered as he talked about Mike Williams.
“He was a super-friendly fellow, he’d let you borrow anything. It’s just a crying shame to lose a neighbor of that quality,” he said.
— By the Evansville Courier Press
