Area mother provides Thanksgiving meals in memory of fallen son

When Jarron Terrence Lamar Williams passed away Sept. 7, 2019, his family and friends wanted to keep the 17-year-old Poplar Bluff (Missouri) High School student's memory alive.

A total of 19 families will have Thanksgiving Thursday because his mother, Tanya Williams, has collected donations, as well as adding her own money, to make certain they have the traditional holiday meal in Jarron's memory.

"I like to keep his face out there so people remember," said Williams, who's done all the Thanksgiving shopping herself.

"I'm not cooking it myself," she said. "What I did is gather the supplies and I'm giving them to the families. I've already handed out some. People are just picking up one today."

Williams didn't know how many families she could help at first.

"I had 17, and then I had two more families contact me," she said, adding "that's what I'm actually doing now, shopping for two more boxes."

Each box has a turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, all the fixings for green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole, corn, macaroni and cheese, drinks, desserts and cranberries.

Combined with her own money and what "I've had people donate," Williams is sharing her son's giving spirit.

"My job actually donated me a $50 gift card. So I'm putting all the names that donated into a drawing and the name I pull up out, they will win the $50 gift card," she said.

Williams works at Donut House Bakery & Deli in Poplar Bluff. The owners also allowed her to store the frozen turkeys in their coolers.

Williams posted on the Facebook page Neighbors Helping Neighbors, "I would be able to help some families with Thanksgiving dinner if they wanted to private message me. They just reached out to me and that's how it happened."

She asked families to private message so their requests would be confidential.

Last year, Williams and Jarron's friends had a softball tournament. This year, because of COVID and everything else that was going on, they didn't get to do the tournament, but, Williams said, they "plan on doing it big next year. I thought for Thanksgiving this year, I could do something."

Williams said, "We did a softball tournament in 2020 with the proceeds going to the Poplar Bluff Animal Shelter."

At first, his friends wanted to help his mother purchase his tombstone.

Tournament organizer Rosa Johnson said they decided to have a softball tournament Aug. 15, 2020, but by then the headstone had been purchased.

Five co-ed teams entering the event raised $990 and organizers decided to do something with the money in Jarron's honor.

Johnson said, because of his love for animals, they decided to donate "the money we raised to the animal shelter to be used for whatever they need."

Williams recalled, "my son would sneak our neighbors' cats in the window at night."

Johnson said, the players actually are all family who normally play ball on the weekends during the summer and fall.

"We all come together to support each other," she said. "Players from Cape Girardeau and St. Louis get involved."