Obituary
By Stephanie Ward
Reeling from the effects of a sudden heart attack, Karen Williams was dealt a double blow from doctors in 1999 when she was diagnosed with AIDS. Shocked beyond belief, Williams spun off into a depression that lasted three years. After finally coming to grips with the disease, Williams made a decision to learn all that she could for herself and to help the growing number of African Americans that were contracting the disease annually. “I think that the way I contracted the disease is not as important as how it has changed my life,” she said in a recent testimonial. Williams, 57, lost her battle with the disease Oct. 23 dying from congested heart failure. Funeral services where held Oct. 30 at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, DE, which she credits with teaching her so much about AIDS and giving her the courage to counsel others. Her life, in recent years had been devoted to the fight against and for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Williams worked as a peer educator, and HIV counselor and tester at The Beautiful Gate Outreach Center, a ministry of Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, DE. She was also a fellow at the African American HIV University, a comprehensive program to develop, place, and support a cadre of highly-trained African American peer treatment educators sponsored by Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles. Williams was very proud of her accomplishments and her work at The Beautiful Gate Outreach Center. “Thanks to The Beautiful Gate Outreach Center, I have learned so much about this disease that I am now able to discuss it in an intelligent manner to anyone who asks a question. I don’t necessarily go around telling everyone that I have AIDS, but at least I am not as ashamed or guilt-ridden as I had been,” she wrote in a testimony before she died. Renee Palmore Beamon, executive director of The Beautiful Gate Outreach Center, said Williams was committed to AIDS education and had had an impact on many of the clients that she worked with. “She had a warm spirit and she wanted those living with AIDS to excel,” Beamon said. Beamon said William’s health was always an issues, but she never complained or let her illness stop her.” Vallerie Wagner, chief operating officer for the AIDS university, said that Williams had a very pleasant personality and was very diligent about learning so that she could take what she learned back to her community. George Billinger Jr. was William’s teacher at the university. He said his fondest memories of Williams were when she realized that she had the highest score in the class. “She was shocked,” he said. “So much so that she couldn’t talk. It was a moving and tender moment.” Williams had other achievements in the area of AIDS education; she received a volunteer appreciation award for outstanding community service by the Philadelphia AIDS Consortium as an Americorps volunteer for Beautiful Gate. William’s daughter Akiesha Williams remembered how her mother was passionate about AIDS education, but in the beginning, it was difficult for her to even tell her daughter that she had the disease. “She had her niece to call me and tell me,” she said. Besides her daughter, William’s leaves a son, Hasan Rasheed, and other close relatives and friends. She was a Philadelphia native who went on to graduate from Temple University with a degree in Criminal Justice. She moved to Wilmington, DE in 1999 and joined Bethel AME Church. She joined Beautiful Gate as a volunteer and then became an employee.