Williams, Vera B. (1927-2015), was an American author and illustrator of books for children. Her best-known work, A Chair for My Mother (1981), tells the story of a Hispanic girl named Rosa. Rosa saves spare change in a jar to buy an armchair for her family after a fire destroys their home. The story was based on Williams’s memories of her own family’s struggles to get by during the Great Depression, a period of economic hardship in the 1930’s. That book was followed by two others about Rosa and her close relationship with her family, Something Special for Me (1983) and Music, Music for Everyone (1984). Many of Williams’s books celebrate the resilience and creativity of women and girls from working-class backgrounds.
Vera Baker was born on Jan. 28, 1927, in Hollywood, California. She later moved with her family to the Bronx borough of New York City, New York. Baker began painting as a child. She received a bachelor’s degree in graphic arts from Black Mountain College, an experimental school in Black Mountain, North Carolina. In 1948, while attending the school, Baker married a classmate, Paul Williams. The couple divorced in 1970. After her divorce, Vera Williams moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where she lived on a houseboat and began to work on children’s books. The first book she illustrated was Hooray for Me! (1975), written by Remy Charlip with Lilian Moore. The first book Williams wrote and illustrated was It’s a Gingerbread House (1978).
Williams wrote and illustrated more than a dozen other children’s books, including Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe (1981); Cherries and Cherry Pits (1986); “More More More,” Said the Baby (1990); Scooter (1993); Lucky Song (1997); and Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart (2001). She also wrote Home at Last (2016, after her death), which she illustrated with the children’s author and illustrator Chris Raschka. Williams illustrated Long Walks and Intimate Talks (1991), a volume of poetry and stories by Grace Paley. In 2008, Williams received the Regina Medal, an award presented by the Catholic Library Association to honor an individual for a lifetime contribution to children’s literature. Williams was also an educator and an activist who campaigned for women’s rights, nonviolence, and the environment. She died on Oct. 16, 2015.
