Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 23, at St. Cloud Life Assembly Church for Emil Williams, age 90, who passed away July 30, 2024, at Edgewood Alexandria in Alexandria. Nathan Williams will officiate and burial will be at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery near Little Falls. Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 22, at Williams Dingmann Family Funeral Home in Sauk Rapids and one hour prior to the services Friday at the church.
Emil Leroy Williams, of Rice, was born to Myrtle Baker Williams and Barney Bud Williams in the Pine Ridge Indian Hospital in western South Dakota May 5, 1934. He attended grade school at Garner School about 8 miles west of Wanblee, South Dakota. After grade school, most of the kids in that community attended high school in Kodoka, a town about 40 miles from home so they had to room and board in Kodoka during the week. After high school graduation, he attended North Central Bible Institute in Minneapolis which is now North Central University.
Shortly after graduation, he was drafted into the Army in December 1956. He served two and a half years in Germany. During his leave time, he took trips to Belgium, France, England, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. When he was discharged from the Army in December 1959, he picked up a job teaching elementary school with all eight grades in a log cabin in western South Dakota. The next year he moved to a white schoolhouse on the prairie and taught seven grades.
In winter 1960, he became engaged to Beulah Irene MacKinney and they were married June 17, 1961. To this union were born seven children: Jonathan, Benjamin, Andrew, Barnabas, Nathan, Elizabeth and Samuel. Emil and his wife, Beulah, pastored a community church in Norse, South Dakota for three years. In 1964, they moved to St. Cloud, so he could attend college. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He taught third grade in the St. Cloud School District and was the first male primary teacher in St. Cloud. While living in St. Cloud, he was instrumental in starting a Full Gospel Men’s Chapter and a Christian school which is still going today.
After retirement he renewed his minister’s license and as a result, at the age of 77, his wife and he felt God calling them to start a church in Rice because they lived nearby. They pastored it for five years and at the age of 82, he turned it over to a much younger pastor, the Rev. Gene Thomsen.
He is survived by his wife, Beulah; one sister, Beverly Larson; six children: Ben (Sherri) Williams of Colorado, Drew (Sandi) Williams of Colorado, Bill (Andrea) Williams of Germany, Nathan (Yuka) Williams of Japan, Beth (Scott) Dean of Iowa, Sam (Anje) Williams of Minnesota; 23 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and a host of relatives and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents; son, Jon; great-grandson, Atlas Moyer; three sisters; and one brother.
If you wish to send flowers, the family asks if you would include the color yellow as it was Emil’s favorite color.
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