ENVIRONMENTAL FIREBRAND DIES; ACTIVIST KNOWN FOR KIND NATURE.Byline: Daily News Environmental activist Stormy Williams, a Rosamond grandmother whose business card identified her occupation as ``irritant'' but who always made a point of being polite and gracious even to bureaucrats and company officials who irked her, has died at age 63. A Rosamond resident since 1956, when she moved there with her late husband, an Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. rocket laboratory technician, Williams made a name for herself over the past 10 years prodding regulatory agencies to clean up toxic waste toxic waste is waste material, often in chemical form, that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use, agriculture, the military, medical facilities, radioactive sources, and in Rosamond and Mojave and lobbying against hazardous waste Hazardous waste Any solid, liquid, or gaseous waste materials that, if improperly managed or disposed of, may pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. Every industrial country in the world has had problems with managing hazardous wastes. incinerators. ``It's a big enough hole you could drive a toxic waste truck through it,'' fellow environmental activist Lyle Talbot Lyle Talbot (February 8, 1902 - March 2, 1996), born Lisle Henderson in Pittsburgh but raised in a small Nebraska town, was a Hollywood actor best known for playing Joe Randolph on television's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet said Wednesday of Williams' death. ``If there's any pollution in the life hereafter, it's being watched over now.'' Williams, who suffered from metastasized breast cancer, died early Monday in Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Hospital. She had been hospitalized a number of times since taking a turn for the worse in August, and had been in the hospital for three days in the last stint. Williams was cremated. Her family is planning a remembrance service, but no date has yet been set. ``It would actually be a celebration of her life. Stormy wouldn't like a bunch of people sitting around being unhappy,'' said her sister, Marilyn Clough. Williams' environmental efforts over the years earned her awards, including one from the Citizens' Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes in Falls Church Falls Church, independent city (1990 pop. 9,578), NE Va., a residential suburb of Washington, D.C.; inc. as a town 1875, as a city 1948. There is diverse light manufacturing, including telecommunications equipment. , Va., and from Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. magazine. Williams was called ``a unique personality with a strong sense of fairness and common sense'' by Jim Maren, the California Environmental Protection Agency's liaison with Rosamond residents. ``She approaches environmental issues with a desire to make the world a better place for everyone, a desire which sometimes manifests itself in very pointed criticism of government decisions and policies,'' Marxen said in a recommendation for the Los Angeles magazine Environmental Pride Award. ``Yet, what made Stormy unique is her ability to put a human side to these issues. She always appeals on behalf of the unrepresented unrepresented adj → nicht vertreten or the unprotected, and I have never known her to express a selfish sentiment despite significant personal sacrifice.'' Once, Williams and seven other protesters chained themselves to a bus for four hours to block the entrance to National Cement Co.'s Gorman plant, which used hazardous waste as a fuel supplement. After years of battling, the company finally announced in March it was giving up the practice. Raised in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden in a Republican family, Williams' true name was Norma Gail, but she had gone by Stormy since childhood - a reference to her middle name and to the stormy weather on the day she was born. Long involved with community projects, Williams entered the environmental arena in 1987 when an organization called Southern Kern Residents Against Pollution campaigned to stop a company from building a $40 million gasification gas·i·fy tr. & intr.v. gas·i·fied, gas·i·fy·ing, gas·i·fies To convert into or become gas. gas plant to burn auto fluff - a mulch made up of auto parts Auto parts are components of automobiles. They mainly are, in alphabetic order (only car specific articles or articles with car section):
``I was at a public hearing and saw the SKRAP people come in with their kids carrying signs. I thought, `Gee, this is great,''' Williams told The Daily News in 1993. In 1988 she got involved when state officials announced they were investigating a cluster of nine childhood cancer cases that occurred in Rosamond between 1975 and 1985. In conjunction with the cancer study, state officials began investigating toxic contamination in Rosamond and Mojave. Williams appeared at scores of protests and public hearings, almost always decked out in something purple, her favorite color, and wearing a visor and sunglasses. Much of her work involved keeping track of which government agency is working on what cleanup projects and lobbying to get money to keep the work moving. Williams made a point of always being polite and gracious. ``I'm a tenacious, patient person,'' Williams said in the 1993 interview. ``I try not to be too aggressive unless someone is ignoring me or acting snippy snip·py adj. snip·pi·er, snip·pi·est Informal 1. Sharp-tongued; impertinent: shocked by his snippy retort. 2. Occurring in pieces; fragmentary. to me.'' Williams is survived by her sister; daughter Jane Williams of Rosamond; sons Mitchell Williams of Taiwan and Matthew Williams of Rosamond; and four grandchildren. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: ``It's a big enough hole you could drive a toxic waste truck through it,'' an activist said of Stormy Williams' death. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion