Julia Wilds Cullum Williamson
Julia Wilds Williamson
Julia Wilds Williamson, 86, of Aiken, died Thursday, Sept. 21, 2000, at Aiken Regional Medical Centers.
Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Bethany Cemetery, Aiken. The Rev. Dr. Olin McBride and Fr. Scott Nead will officiate.
A native of Aiken, Mrs. Williamson was a daughter of the late Dr. Robert H. and Annabelle (Ashley) Wilds. She was a homemaker.
Mrs. Williamson was a member of St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church.
She was the widow of Norman E. Cullum and Leonard A. Williamson.
Surviving are one son, Norma A. Cullum, Charleston; one daughter, Eleanor Cullum Studley, Aiken; on brother, Dr. Preston Lee [sic] Wilds, Norfolk, Va.; three grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.
Friends may call from 9 a.m. -5 p.m. Monday at George Funeral Homes, Downtown.
Aiken Standard, September, 2000, Aiken, SC
Editorials
Julia Wilds Williamson
Julia Wilds Williamson died Sept. 21 after a lingering illness. She was 86. She had led an interesting life, with ties to Old Aiken and to Aiken's Winter Colony.
Her father was Dr. Robert H. Wilds, a heroic young physician who came to Aiken first as a teacher and later served in World War I. Dr. Wilds married Annabelle Ashley, whose home, Orange Grove, now greatly altered, is one of Aiken's historic homes.
Julia was their only daughter, and she was eight when her mother died tragically of blood poisoning contracted after being stuck by a hat pin in those days before penicillin.
Some years later Dr. Wilds was married in a ceremony in New York to Eleanor Phelps, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield Phelps and sister of Miss Claudia Phelps, the last Phelps to occupy Rose Hill in Aiken.
Dr. Wilds and his bride built a handsome English-style home on a walled estate on Hayne Avenue. There Julia grew to young womanhood. She attended Fermata School and became skilled at equestrian sports and also tennis and golf.
At an early age, she was married to Norman E. Cullum, a young Aiken attorney. They had two children, and Mr. Cullum died, still a young man.
His widow Julia worked for a time selling real estate for Durban-Laird Co. She also was a member of the hospital auxiliary and as a Gray Lady worked as a volunteer at the VA hospital in Augusta.
She eventually married Leonard Williamson, another attorney who achieved distinction for his role in a famous case involving a series of murders in Aiken. Mr. Williamson and Julian B. Salley, Jr. were appointed by the court to represent L. D. Harris, a black man charged with the murder of a Six Points merchant and his wife. Harris was convicted and sentenced to death, despite evidence that his confession had been forced. The two lawyers appealed his sentence and went to Washington in 1948 to plead their case before the U. S. Supreme Court, winning freedom for Harris. Years later another man confessed to the Six Point murders and two other murders in Aiken.
Later Williamson became circuit solicitor and is still remembered for his eloquent courtroom manner and also the compassion he showed for those appearing before the court. He died a number of years ago.
Mr. Salley, still practicing in Aiken, speaks highly of Mr. Williamson's role in the case, and he remembers Mrs. Williamson as "a really lovely lady."
We extend our deepest sympathies to her family.
Aiken Standard, Sunday October 1, 2000, Aiken, SC
