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| George Williams, seen in Westmont in 2005, washed the storefront windows of businesses in South Jersey for over 20 years and was friends with many of the business owners. He had a passion for music and often sang as he worked. Click to enlarge. |
Free-spirited mystery man mourned: Audubon — For more than 20 years, George Williams made his living by washing windows — riding his bicycle from wherever he was living to shopping centers and homes stretching from Pennsauken to Deptford. He was a free spirit whose life was pretty much a mystery to the people he met, providing them with clean windows, songs that came from the heart and conversation that revealed a simple yet deep outlook on life. And when Williams died last month, he left a void in the lives of those he touched.
Williams, who would have turned 70 this July according to one of his longtime customers, Renee Mettinger of Deptford, was found dead March 11 in the abandoned Audubon house where he’d been living. He had been ill for some time and died of natural causes, said his friend Bill Roccia of Mount Ephraim. It is unclear whether Williams had permission to live in the abandoned home. But although he appeared to have no family, he was proud of the fact that he supported himself with his window-washing and never had to beg or live on the streets.
The cycling entrepreneur’s body is at the Camden County Coroner’s Office waiting to be claimed. If no family members step forward by 30 days after his death, Williams will most likely be buried in a Potter’s Field area of Lakewood Memorial Park, a county-owned site in the Lakeland complex in Blackwood, county spokesman Dan Keashen said. Williams would be buried with a headstone that is numbered, but would bear no name — unless someone steps in to become administrator for the window-washer, Keashen said. “It wouldn’t be unprecedented,” Keashen noted.
Local shopkeepers and others who befriended the longtime fixture along the White and Black Horse pikes may want to do just that. “I just can’t accept having him disappear as an ‘indigent person,’ ” said Mettinger, who owns and operates Flowers by Renee on Merchant Street in Audubon. Mettinger used to read the Bible with Williams when he’d come to wash her windows. She knows he was a Jehovah’s Witness and thinks maybe there could be a memorial service conducted by someone representing that faith.
In the meantime, she misses the man who washed her store windows and serenaded her for at least five years. “We don’t truly know who George was, or where he came from. But he was a special person,” Mettinger said. “He was simple, joyful and had the voice of an angel.” Williams claimed to be a member of The Tymes, part of the Delaware Valley music phenomenon that came to be known as the Philadelphia Sound in the late 1950s, 1960s and even into the 1970s. The Tymes had one major chart-topper in 1963, “So Much In Love,” and also scored that year with a cover of “Wonderful, Wonderful,” made famous by Johnny Mathis.
But the only George Williams known for certain to have been a member of the group was its lead singer, who was living in Maple Shade when he died of cancer in 2004. There was a George Hilliard in the group, who disappeared from the music scene and was not a part of The Tymes when it reorganized in the 1970s.
Roccia, a computer technician for the Camden City School District, believes there were two George Williams with The Tymes. He first spotted the bicyclist about 15 years ago when Williams was washing windows in his neighborhood. “One day, I passed him as I was riding my motorcycle. He was going in the other direction and it hit me like a ton of bricks that this guy had a story,” Roccia said. Roccia gave Williams a ride to Camden one day when the window-washer needed to get his bicycle repaired. The two bonded over music — Roccia is a drummer and guitarist who has recorded a few songs, and Williams also played guitar.
“One day when I was videotaping a history of Philadelphia music, I suggested we get George over to talk about his memories. He came to my house in a red velvet tuxedo,” Roccia recalled. “The guy was deep,” Roccia added. “When he was asked what Philadelphia was like in the ’50s, he said, ‘The rain tasted different back then.’ ” Roccia said the video about the Philly Sound was never completed.
Roccia said Williams knew “everything about everything.” He believes his buddy once sang backup for Chubby Checker on his Twist recordings, and also wrote the first song that Nancy Sinatra recorded long before her boots started walkin’. But he remained reticent about that time in his life, saying he was a window-washer now, Roccia said.
When Williams took ill last fall, Mettinger took him to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden. At his request, she brought him a Bible and some sugar when he complained he had none to put in his tea. Later, he was moved to a nursing home on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, where he was clearly unhappy. “In his mind, he was in a prison,” Roccia said. Williams left the nursing home in late fall. “He wanted to get back to work. He wanted to get on his bike and be out in the world and free, washing windows,” Mettinger said. “He’d say to me, ‘Renee, there are a lot of people that are sick and they need to be laying in this bed.’ He was amazing, so selfless. I hold a deep respect for him.”
It was Roccia who went to Williams’ home and found his body after no one had seen the window-washer for a few days. It appeared that Williams, who was in bed, died in his sleep. Roccia thinks Williams may have a sister in Philadelphia, but no one can confirm it. Mettinger can’t bear the thought of her friend ending up in a numbered grave. “In my mind and in my heart, nobody should be a number. My desire is to try to put something together, including a stone that would have his name on it,” she said.
Keashen said that if the body remains unclaimed, anyone can apply at the county surrogate’s office to be administrator for Williams. Any number of people could chip in to have the stone engraved and schedule a service at the Lakeland cemetery, which is open to the public. They could also arrange to have him buried elsewhere if they’d like, Keashen said. “His life is, to a large degree, shrouded in mystery. But anyone can step in. It doesn’t have to be next of kin,” he said.
Mettinger hopes others who cared about Williams will join in giving him the farewell he deserves. “George was a rich person — not the way most of us think about being rich, but George was rich,” she said. “To me, George isn’t gone. He’s still alive within all of us. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to meet and know George,” Mettinger said.
But the only George Williams known for certain to have been a member of the group was its lead singer, who was living in Maple Shade when he died of cancer in 2004. There was a George Hilliard in the group, who disappeared from the music scene and was not a part of The Tymes when it reorganized in the 1970s.
Roccia, a computer technician for the Camden City School District, believes there were two George Williams with The Tymes. He first spotted the bicyclist about 15 years ago when Williams was washing windows in his neighborhood. “One day, I passed him as I was riding my motorcycle. He was going in the other direction and it hit me like a ton of bricks that this guy had a story,” Roccia said. Roccia gave Williams a ride to Camden one day when the window-washer needed to get his bicycle repaired. The two bonded over music — Roccia is a drummer and guitarist who has recorded a few songs, and Williams also played guitar.
“One day when I was videotaping a history of Philadelphia music, I suggested we get George over to talk about his memories. He came to my house in a red velvet tuxedo,” Roccia recalled. “The guy was deep,” Roccia added. “When he was asked what Philadelphia was like in the ’50s, he said, ‘The rain tasted different back then.’ ” Roccia said the video about the Philly Sound was never completed.
Roccia said Williams knew “everything about everything.” He believes his buddy once sang backup for Chubby Checker on his Twist recordings, and also wrote the first song that Nancy Sinatra recorded long before her boots started walkin’. But he remained reticent about that time in his life, saying he was a window-washer now, Roccia said.
When Williams took ill last fall, Mettinger took him to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden. At his request, she brought him a Bible and some sugar when he complained he had none to put in his tea. Later, he was moved to a nursing home on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, where he was clearly unhappy. “In his mind, he was in a prison,” Roccia said. Williams left the nursing home in late fall. “He wanted to get back to work. He wanted to get on his bike and be out in the world and free, washing windows,” Mettinger said. “He’d say to me, ‘Renee, there are a lot of people that are sick and they need to be laying in this bed.’ He was amazing, so selfless. I hold a deep respect for him.”
It was Roccia who went to Williams’ home and found his body after no one had seen the window-washer for a few days. It appeared that Williams, who was in bed, died in his sleep. Roccia thinks Williams may have a sister in Philadelphia, but no one can confirm it. Mettinger can’t bear the thought of her friend ending up in a numbered grave. “In my mind and in my heart, nobody should be a number. My desire is to try to put something together, including a stone that would have his name on it,” she said.
Keashen said that if the body remains unclaimed, anyone can apply at the county surrogate’s office to be administrator for Williams. Any number of people could chip in to have the stone engraved and schedule a service at the Lakeland cemetery, which is open to the public. They could also arrange to have him buried elsewhere if they’d like, Keashen said. “His life is, to a large degree, shrouded in mystery. But anyone can step in. It doesn’t have to be next of kin,” he said.
Mettinger hopes others who cared about Williams will join in giving him the farewell he deserves. “George was a rich person — not the way most of us think about being rich, but George was rich,” she said. “To me, George isn’t gone. He’s still alive within all of us. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to meet and know George,” Mettinger said.
2 comments:
R.I.P George you'll be off to clean the lords windows up there m8
and guess what the veiw will be fantastic. from a window cleaner down under in Christchurch New Zealand.
Wow! I knew George, and he was the nicest guy that you could ever meet. He was so humble. I know that most people looked down upon him, and it was for that reason that I befriended him. I would see him on his bike all the time, and when I saw him, I always gave a toot. I will miss, just knowing that he is not with us anymore. He did divulge a lot of information to the folks that work at David Wilson's Men"s Clothes store.
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