For Wilma Williams Donerson, serving God by uplifting others was as essential to life as breathing.  Born in 1934, in the small town of Joiner near Osceola, Arkansas to Estella Pierce and Luke Williams, Wilma's aim to always accentuate the positive was likely fueled by personal adversity.  In fact, the year of her birth, Osceola became home to the historic Dyess Colony agricultural resettlement community, a product of President Franklin Roosevelt's post-Great Depression "New Deal" program that recruited unskilled laborers to carry out public works projects.  To collect their fair share of the deal, minorities likely had to press, often risking personal harm.  For young Wilma, an energetic beauty who loved to dance (blues guitarist and Osceola native Albert "B.B" King was a teen sweetheart), invoking fun and fellowship to ease the tension was most certainly a no-brainer.

In the mid-1960s, Wilma moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where she studied cosmetology.  In 1981, she relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, her final earthy hometown, to help care for her grandchildren.

Over the years, Wilma worked for a program that funded food for daycare centers, as a cafeteria aid at Graceland Elementary School, housekeeping for Woodley Maintenance and as a Senior Companion for ElderService, Inc.  Careful not to neglect her spiritual health, for a number of years Wilma was a member of Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church where she served as a stewardess and member of the Women's Missionary Board.

In addition to her parents, Wilma is preceded in death by, siblings, Sylvester Williams, Mary Lawrence, Kathrine Rupert and Velma Carter; children, Rocky Allen Lane Williams and Sandra Kay Hinton.

She is survived by: husband, Ellison Donerson; children, Gary McGhee (Willetta), Charles Koen, Regina Hollinger, Andrea Jarrett, Kevin Jarrett (Angela) and Aaron Donerson; sister-friends, Ernestine Wilson, Carol Thompson and Hattie Clark.  Her legacy includes 20 grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews; great-great-great-great-grandchildren.

Memorial service for Mrs. Donerson will be held 11:00 A.M. Saturday, April 20, 2019, at Allen St. John A.M.E. Church.  Meet and greet from 11:00 A.M. until service time Saturday at the church.

Thoughtful care and services provided by E. S. Eley & Sons Funeral Chapel, Inc.