Les Williams, Tuskegee Airman, dies at 95

Les Williams, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, died Monday in his Patterson home, daughter Penny Williams said.

Williams, 95, lived an incredible life, rising to the rank of captain among the first black aviators in American military history. He flew B-25s, though his unit did not see combat action during the war. He also became an accomplished tap dancer who ran a dance studio in San Mateo for 30 years and counted NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann among his students.

At age 50, he graduated from Stanford Law School and became an attorney. As a youngster, he spent his summers visiting relatives in Southern California, where he became friends with Jackie Robinson, who went on to break major-league baseball’s color barrier in 1947. And Williams’ cousin Archie Williams won the 400-meter run in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the same games in which black American athletes led by Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals, left German dictator Adolf Hitler in a snit and refusing to shake their hands.

Throughout his life, Williams battled prejudice, including in the military and then after the war, when he was unable to find work as a commercial airline pilot.

His family moved to Patterson in 2014. Williams appeared during the National History Day event Feb. 23 at Creekside Middle School in Patterson.

“Loved the ovation for my father when he entered the room,” Penny Williams wrote to event organizer Samia Merza-Fillpot afterward.

In March, he spent three days in a hospital after he became dehydrated and his appetite diminished, both of which continued after he returned home.

“He lasted longer than we expected him to,” Penny Williams wrote in an email to The Bee. “What a guy.”

Williams died Monday night, “surrounded by family and friends,” she wrote.

Williams was the subject of a Feb. 8 column by The Bee’s Jeff Jardine.

A memorial service will be held April 18 in San Mateo.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 8:58 AM with the headline "Les Williams, Tuskegee Airman, dies at 95."