Hannah Cheney Williams

Hannah Cheney Williams died peacefully January 20, 2012 at her residence in Crosslands retirement community, Kennett Square PA where she had lived since 1989. She was in her 100th year.
Hannah was born in Manchester, Connecticut on Christmas day 1912 to Horace B. and Mary P. Cheney, members of the Cheney Brothers Silk Company, manufacturers of fine silk products.
Hannah attended Milton Academy 1928-1931 and Sarah Lawrence College with a BA in 1935. She was a research assistant to sociologists Robert and Helen Lund on their research and the books, "Middletown in Transition"1935 and "Montclair Study of Families in the Depression" 1936.
She was involved in the early years of American documentary films working with Joris Ivens and Ernest Hemingway on the film Spanish Earth (1937), and editing the films "Lincoln Brigade" (1938), films for the Julien Bryan Lectures (1938) and "Travel in Finland" for the Finish Government exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair among other projects in the active photography world of New York in the 1930s.
After her marriage to Byard Williams, June 25,1939 she was involved in civic projects in New York City. She was Administrator for The Spuyten Duyvil Nursury School 1949-1958. She founded and was an administrator for Riverdale Outdoor Laboratories, one of the earliest educational programs to bring hands-on ecology and natural resource education to inner city school children in New York, 1959-1965. She helped establish Wave Hill, the arboretum and education center on the Hudson river and worked in their educational and horticultural programs from 1965 to 1970. Hannah also had a life-long love of mountains, especially the Adirondacks, fostered by her family summers in Keene Valley, NY.
She is survived by her children, Owen (and his wife Martha) and Timothy (and his wife Janet) WIlliams and Ann Lane, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers donations may be made "in memory of Hannah C Williams" to: the Adirondack Council, P.O. Box - D2, Elizabethtown, New York 12932 (www,adirondackcouncil.org), Kendal-Crosslands Communities, P.O. Box 100 Kennett Square 19348 (for the Employee Appreciation Fund), or Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA, 1144 Locust St., Philadelphia, PA 19107.
There will be a memorial service at Crosslands sometime this spring.
Condolences and memories can be shared at www.griecocares.com.

Arrangements by the Kuzo & Grieco Funeral Home, Kennett Square,