Houma businessman had way of earning other’s trust

When a customer walked into Earl Williams Clothing Store in Houma anytime in the past several decades, they’d often see the store’s namesake first.

He was always dressed to impress – always with his customary tape measure draped around his neck. That same simple and basic tool was always in his repertoire. It signified to both himself and his clients that he was ready to work.

“My dad always had his tape measure,” Williams’ daughter Charlette Williams-Black said with a laugh. “And he trained us to always have one. I’ve had so many that I’d collect them at my house. When someone comes to the store, my dad taught us that you have to measure everyone – treat them with respect and never, ever ask them what their size is. It’s your job as the worker to use your tape measure to find that out.”

“That was part of Dad’s service,” daughter Martha Williams said. “He was all about service. Service was No. 1 with Dad. Customers were always No. 1.”

A local business figure and leader, a husband and father of eight, a true staple of Downtown Houma and a kind-hearted, loving family man, Williams passed away on April 24 at the age of 86.

Family and friends joke about Williams’ tape measure. But his impact on the lives of others, and on the community as a whole, can’t be measured – it was far too big to be quantified.

“He was a great man,” Martha said. “He had this rare ability to talk to people and to get them to tell him their problems. He got people to trust him. When he spoke to you, you knew it was coming from a good place. You knew he cared and wished you well and had the best intentions.”

The downtown Houma store was a huge piece of Williams’ life. It’s been in operation now for almost 70 years.

Williams started the store when he was just 19 – just before he’d marry Marie Waguespack Williams – his wife of 66 years. Williams worked a number of oddball jobs throughout his young life as a way to support himself. Standing on his own two feet was something Earl Williams had to learn to do from the earliest of ages. His father, Frank, died when he was just a toddler and his mom, Mary, passed when he was 17.

“He’d worked at a clothing store back in the day called Taxman’s Clothing, but that was about it,” Martha said. “He just knew that his parents were both gone, so he needed to do something.”

So with the store open, Earl Williams’ true colors as a man showed brightest.

Sure, the day-to-day operations of the store were based on clothing sales – outfitting Houma natives with suits, slacks and all other aspects of formal attire.

But within the inner workings of it all is where Williams thrived and paved his legacy. Yes, clients attended the store with a need for clothing. Yes, Williams and family met that demand and provided the attire in swift order. But Williams also had a way of interacting and mingling with customers on a higher level. He had ways to get people – all people – to love, trust and confide in him so that they’d both have the desire to return to the store in the future, but also consider Williams a confidant and friend.

While working that tape measure, Williams did more than get a customer’s waist size and pants length. He also earned trust and made friendships – that’d ultimately last forever.

“There’d be people who’d hardly know him who’d come here and by the time they’d left, they’d be hugging him and thanking him for everything that he’s done,” Martha said. “He took care of people and just had that ability – that wisdom – to get people to talk to him.

“He always had the ability to give the perfect advice that you needed, while also being a good listener, as well.”

Williams worked the store into his 60s. About 20 years have passed since he’s handed it to his children. But even in retirement, he was a frequent guest.

“There wasn’t a day that’d go by after he retired that he wouldn’t come by just to see how we were doing,” Charlette said. “That never changed.”

Away from the store, Williams’ daughters tout that he loved to fish and was an avid gardener – a family-proclaimed “neat freak” while managing the green areas around his home.

But they agree that Williams’ hobbies were mostly surrounded around family. Martha said her dad loved being a father and a husband, noting that wife Marie and their kids were “his everything.”

“We’d get together on Sundays and cook and just enjoy one another’s company,” the daughter remembered. “That’s what Dad wanted – for us to all be around him.”

But by Monday, it was back to the store – tape measure around his neck and customers grazing in and out of the store.

That’s the image the Williams children remember most.

“He was a hard worker,” Charlette said. “He took so much pride in the store. He always wanted people to be treated right.”

Local businessman Earl Williams poses in his clothing store with his favorite people – his family. The local storeowner died on April 24. His loving personality and ability to relate to people are what family say they’ll miss most about the Houma native.

COURTESY