Frank & Jamie McCourt like to talk about Dodgers fans like they really know them, and yet they've never met Mrs. Williams, as corny as it is, the heart and soul of what the Dodgers experience is all about.
Her legal name is Margaret Williams, but out of respect for the woman of stirring conviction, as you will learn here, most folks call her Miss Williams or Mrs. Williams.
The woman has been coming to Dodgers games since the stadium opened, 33 years with her husband before he died, "and I was the happiest person in the world," she says, her L.A. baseball cap sitting a little cockeyed on her head.
"I had a good husband. I'd never be able to find a man who could match up to him."
Arthur Williams passed away 23 years ago, and while it wasn't quite the same, "sometimes I cried and sometimes I smiled," her interest in the Dodgers continued.
Tuesday night the Dodgers season-ticket holder was surrounded by three young people for dinner in the Stadium Club, because "old men are only good for passing notes to young men," she says, "and when you're with old people and they get up, they've got to tell you, 'Oh, my knee hurts,' and this problem and that problem."
Now I'd like to tell you how old Mrs. Williams is, "but any woman who tells you her age, will tell you anything," she says.
A Dodgers fan for life, a trip recently to Arizona to be with the team, and yet all those losses the last 20 years, and here she is sitting in a wheelchair and pumping her right hand into the air when Nomar Garciaparra hits a first-inning home run.
"That's my guy," she says, while careful not to raise her left hand, which was broken in a recent fall that also resulted in a broken hip. "Try and put a pair of pantyhose on with one hand."
Now how old did you say you were, Mrs. Williams?
"Just because I'm old, I'm not forgetful," she says. "Go ahead and try and trick me, but I'm not saying."
The woman is still teaching adult classes on how to make clothes and quilts. She's wearing an outfit she made herself. She taught her husband how to make his own clothes.
She was teacher of the year for the Los Angeles Unified School District a few decades back, and one of the founders of Project Jordan, which financially assists youngsters who have advanced from Jordan High in Watts to college.
"We send $100 checks to kids every month and they must write a letter telling us they received the check," she says. "No letter, no check the next month."
