Who is Mary Williams? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Mary Luana Williams, Lulu Williams

Age: 56 Years, 56 Year Old Females

Family:

father: Randy Williams

mother: Jane Fonda

siblings: Troy Garity

Social Activists American Women

More Facts

education: Haverford College, Loyola Marymount University

Recommended For You

Recommended Lists:

Loyola Marymount University

Women Activists

American Activists

Childhood & Early Life

Born on October 13, 1967, in California, Mary Williams was the fifth of six children of Randy and Mary Williams. Both of her biological parents were affiliated with Black Panthers in the Black Power civil rights movement. The family resided in East Oakland, California, where the epicentre of the movement was located. It was a turbulent time in US history. The country was engaged in a brutal war in Vietnam, while the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing at home. Race riots were taking place all over the country on a regular basis. Williams later referred to this era as “violent and frenzied”.

Her father, Randy, served as a captain within the Panthers militaristic hierarchy and was part of the Armed Citizens' Patrol. In April 1970, Randy and his associates attacked several police officers in an attempt to prevent the arrest of four black marijuana suspects. Three officers suffered various degrees of injuries before the Panthers fled the scene. The police chased them in thirty patrol cars while the Panthers attempted to thwart the pursuit by hurling Molotov cocktails. Randy was eventually arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison.

At the time of her father’s sentencing, Williams was four years old. In the absence of her husband, the responsibility of rearing their six children fell on her mother, who proved to be miserably unfit for the task. She physically abused her children while rapidly sinking into alcoholism. One of Williams’ siblings, Donna, escaped from home, and another, Deborah, became a drug addict and prostitute. Williams, along with some of her other siblings, were admitted to Laurel Springs Children’s Camp, which was established by Fonda in Santa Monica, California. After Williams met the renowned actress, she started harbouring acting aspirations.

At the age of 14, she gave an audition at the house of a theatre director. His name was David and he raped her. Her horrible ordeal continued for the following few weeks. He would drive to her house, take her from there, and later bring her back. This ultimately ended when school started again. Fonda came to know about the rape and subsequently had a lengthy conversation with Williams. She told Williams that she could come to live with her if she bettered her grades. According to Williams, this incentive revitalised her interest in education.

Recommended Lists:

Female Social Activists

American Women Activists

Libra Women

Continue Reading Below

Adoptive Family

In 1982, Mary Williams relocated to Fonda’s Santa Monica home, which the latter shared with her then-husband, Tom Hayden. While Williams had not been officially adopted by Fonda and Hayden, the notion of her residing at their home had the full support of Williams’ mother. She grew up there alongside Vanessa Vadim, Fonda’s daughter with French screenwriter Roger Vadim, and Fonda and Hayden’s only son, Troy Garity.

Fonda and Hayden divorced in 1990, and she subsequently married Ted Turner. Williams and Turner developed a strong bond over the years. She considers him as the true father figure in her life. She is also close to Turner’s other children from previous marriages. Despite the dissolution of Fonda and Turner’s marriage in 2001, he and Williams maintained the same relationship.

Education & Career

After earning her high school diploma from Santa Monica Community College, Mary Williams enrolled at Claremont-based liberal arts school, Pitzer College, from where she graduated with a degree in African American history.

While Williams never became an actress, she followed in her adoptive mother’s footsteps into her other passion, social activism. She travelled to Tanzania and Morocco to work there on various social causes and later obtained a master’s degree in public health at Boston University.

In the early days of her career, Williams was employed as a fundraiser at the International Rescue Committee in Atlanta and worked with Sudanese refugees. She later established the Lost Boys Foundation, an initiative that helps the Lost Boys of Sudan. In 2005, she published her children’s book ‘Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan’. ‘The Lost Daughter: A Memoir’, a book detailing her relationship with her two families, was published in 2013.

Personal Life

Mary Williams was engaged to be married once. However, she and her partner did not go through with the wedding.

Mary Williams Biography