Mentor. Warrior. Matriarch. All these words have been used to describe a Bamberg native whose tireless work to promote HIV/AIDS awareness has now ended.

Stephanie Williams died Sunday at her Bamberg residence, but the 45-year-old's memory and valiant battle with AIDS will not be forgotten. Whether she was attending town hall meetings, rallying for more state funding to support a state drug assistance program, or drumming up local efforts to promote a national AIDS advocacy project, Williams was busy motivating others to raise awareness on education and prevention.

"She was a matriarch, and we were very close. Stephanie is the one that taught me how to become involved with HIV/AIDS work like marches and stuff," said Orangeburg resident Anthony Lawson, who is living with AIDS.

Lawson serves as Midlands representative of the South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS. Williams served as co-chairperson of the organization.

"We worked together. Stephanie and I go back to the early 1990s. We met in a support group, and she started to teach me how to educate people. She started out early and helped a lot of people ... to speak out in public about their status. I started doing presentations," Lawson said.

Williams, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1991, remained influential in Lawson's life even from her deathbed.

"She could barely talk, and I just kept telling her, 'I love you.' She was a very sweet person. She was like a motivator ... for people to want to do the work. She's definitely a mentor to a lot of people," Lawson said.

A member of the Orangeburg-based Minority AIDS Council, Williams also worked with AIDSVote, a national grassroots organizing and advocacy project dedicated to ending AIDS through mobilization. Williams led the mobilization effort with other HIV/AIDS survivors and local advocacy groups to make sure candidates running for public office know what it takes to end AIDS.

Columbia resident Karen Bates, who worked alongside Williams as chairperson of the South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS, said she and Williams did volunteer work on HIV/AIDS advocacy issues for nearly a decade.

"One of my favorites from the many photos I have of our advocacy efforts together is from when we were in Washington, D.C. in 2006, as we were being honored for jointly winning the Keith B. Cylar Award for U.S. AIDS Activism, given by Housing Works, Inc. of NYC. Stephanie was a very dear friend of mine," Bates said.

William's funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Gethsemane Baptist Church, 117 Clear Pond Road, Bamburg, S.C. 29003.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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