ROANOKE, Va. – “I just think she wanted everyone to feel valued, and to feel like they had someone in their corner,” Susan William’s friend Amanda Charsha-Lindsey said.
Susan Williams was known as a public servant in the community - but to the people whose lives she touched, she was a beacon of hope.
People like Charsha-Lindsey.
“She truly made everyone feel like they were family,” Charsha-Lindsey said.
Charsha-Lindsey first met Susan over a decade ago and is now taking care of her beloved dog Ginny.
“She really became like my grandma in Roanoke. I moved here from Tennessee and didn’t know anyone besides my husband at the time. She really made sure that she remembered every birthday, anniversary, holiday,” Charsha-Lindsey said.
Throughout her 80 years, Susan dedicated her life to giving back.
She began her journey as CEO of the Local Office on Aging in 1988.
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Current president Ron Boyd shares that she was relentless in her advocacy for underserved communities.
“When I think of Susan and remember her, I think for about two decades she had a mobile sign that hung in her office, with just one word on each side. On the one side it said ‘challenge,’ and on the other side it was ‘opportunity.’ And I think that really spoke to her. I think of her passion,” Boyd said.
She headed up some of the agency’s biggest outreach opportunities, like Meals on Wheels.
It’s an issue she passionately advocated for during interviews with WSLS 10 over the years.
“The people that she served, how did they see her?” 10 News Anchor Abbie Coleman asked.
“The clients, she was very hands-on. She would do Meals on Wheels routes. Things that you wouldn’t typically think of a CEO as doing,” Boyd said.
Her death has ignited a newfound passion in Boyd’s mission to continue her legacy.
“It’s just hard to process right now. That she had lived such a rich life in her 80s. And to tragically be lost this way just lets us know that there’s a lot more work that needs to be done,” Boyd said.
Susan was an active member of the steering committee to end homelessness in our area.
Charsha-Lindsey says that Susan would never want her death to hinder the work being done.
“I hope that people learn to live like she did and learn to be a little more kind to people who are passing because that could be anyone out there. I do know that she wouldn’t want people to paint anyone with a blanket statement, especially the unhoused population,” she said.
As we remember Susan Williams, it’s impossible to overlook the countless awards and recognitions she received for her dedication to our community.
Charsha-Lindsey shared with 10 News that she truly believes Susan was serving others until her very last moments.
