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Leola Williams Butler, a devoted servant of God and cornerstone of her family, passed away peacefully on September 4, 2026, at age 83, surrounded by her husband of 62 years, Elder Elton Butler, and their four children. From her family and church to her community, profession, and participation in a movement that changed the nation, Leola lived a life of faith, service, courage, and lasting impact.

Born January 1, 1943, in West Palm Beach, Florida, Leola was the second of nine children born to the late James and Ida Mae Williams. She was raised in West Palm Beach’s Pleasant City community during segregation, where she developed the strength, determination, and sense of community that would remain with her throughout her life. Among the relationships formed there was her lifelong friendship with Elouise Gaskin Wilson, whom she met in third grade.

Leola accepted Christ at an early age, beginning a lifetime of faithful service. She worshiped and served at Peaceful Zion Missionary Baptist Church and Mt. Zion Primitive Baptist Church in West Palm Beach. After moving to the Tampa Bay area in 2004, she continued her service at Unity A.M.E. Church in Seffner. There she helped establish the church’s annual Black History recognition programs, participated in women’s ministry, and contributed her time and talents to numerous church activities. Her faith was not simply something she professed; it was reflected in how she served her family, church, and community.

While attending college, Leola met Elton Butler, the love of her life. They married on February 14, 1964, beginning a 62-year marriage grounded in love, faith, family, and adventure. Together they raised four children and built a life filled with experiences and memories. An avid traveler, Leola visited more than three-fourths of the United States and numerous countries in Europe and Asia. She loved spontaneous road trips and discovering new places, with the Smoky Mountains and Hawaii holding particularly special places in her heart.

In the late 1970s, Leola pursued her calling in nursing, earning her LPN credentials from Palm Beach Vocational School of Nursing. She continued her education at Palm Beach Junior College, earning an Associate Degree in Nursing and becoming a Registered nurse, and later completed additional coursework toward a B.S.R.N. through Florida Atlantic University. She further advanced her training at New York University in Manhattan, becoming an RN Rehabilitation Specialist. Her professional service included St. Mary’s Hospital of West Palm Beach, the Visiting Nurses Association of West Palm Beach, private nursing agencies, Intracorp Nursing as a case manager, and work as a Certified Insurance Rehabilitation Specialist. Through her nursing and involvement in community and professional organizations, Leola’s commitment to caring for others extended well beyond her home and into communities throughout Palm Beach County.

Her commitment to service was matched by a lifelong belief in equality and justice. As a young woman in the early 1960s, Leola participated in sit-ins and civil rights protests, joined the Freedom Riders, and traveled to the historic March on Washington, where she witnessed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech and heard Mahalia Jackson sing. She preserved tickets, programs, and other artifacts from her participation in these historic events, sharing them and their stories with her family, at public events, documentaries, and through local news interviews. In doing so, she ensured that future generations of her family understood that history was not merely something they read about, but their mother and grandmother had helped shape it.

That Legacy continued across generations. Leola shared her experiences with pride, using her life to teach the importance of courage, education, equality, faith, and service. Her family’s civil-rights experiences later helped inspire a $10,000 donation of diverse children’s books through Diversify the Classroom, extending that legacy into classrooms and the lives of another generation of children.

From Pleasant City to Palm Beach County, from the church pew to the nursing profession, and from local civil-rights demonstrations to the March on Washington. Leola’s life carried an impact that reached from her family and community to the state and nation. Yet, for all she accomplished, those who knew her best will remember the woman at the center of it all, a devoted wife and mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, woman of faith, caregiver, advocate, traveler, friend, and family matriarch.

Leola leaves a legacy measured not only by what she accomplished, but by whom she loved, whom she served, what she stood for, and what she passed forward. Her strength, tenacity, faith, lessons, stories, and love now live on through the generations that follow her.