Pearline Williams has five children but hundreds of Vicksburg natives view her as their mom.

For her work in the community Williams, the widow of We Care founder Tommie L. Williams Sr. received Fellowship of Christian Athletes Central Area Lifetime Achievement Award for integrity, service, teamwork and excellence in a surprise ceremony Saturday.

“She was the mother to every child in the Douglas Park and Marcus Bottom community,” said Alonzo Stevens, a school board member and Central Area FCA. “I grew up at her house.”

In addition to being a community mother, Williams worked as a nurse, was a driving force behind We Care Community Center and fought for equal rights, all the while raising her own five children.

“My thing was they had to go to college, and my husband’s thing was they had to have a trade, something they could fall back on, on their own,” Williams said.

Tommie Williams, who died last year, worked in his early life as a plumber. He was influential in getting running water and sewer lines for the Douglas Park and Marcus Bottom communities. But one day in April 1967, Tommie unexpectedly went blind.

“One day he came home and he had lifted up something that was too heavy and he said his eyesight closed up like a curtain,” Pearline Williams said.

Bound to not let her husband feel sorry for himself, Williams made him take on house chores.

“I told him you are too young to just sit around and hold your hands. I started making him do things around the house,” she said.  “We had a washer but we didn’t have a dryer. I would make him hang clothes. He resented it at first and thought I was being mean to him.”

The cloths hanging eventually led her husband to found We Care, where the couple helped feed and clothe countless Vicksburg residents.

“People from all over would send canned goods and boxes of clothing. I went though all the clothing and we got together a variety store. We charged a minimum price so we could pay the rent and the lights,” she said.

Williams’ community service began in 1948 when she was fresh out of high school. She had gone to register to vote when she was asked in the circuit clerk’s office to interpret a portion of the U.S. Constitution and required to pay a $2 poll tax.

“We weren’t able to vote freely like we wanted to do,” she said of members of the black community.

Williams was prepared though. She knew she would be tested on the Constitution and had kept her senior history book so she could study.

“I told them I lost it,” she said. “I had to pay 50 cents for it.”

Williams examined the notecards laid out before her and there she would become a public servant. She made similar cards with explanations.

“They had classes at night and people were able to vote that way. That’s something I really feel proud of. Otherwise they would have not been able to vote,” William said. “That’s a highlight in my life.”