Harriet E. Williams

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Customer service representatives the world over breathed a collective sigh of relief on the evening of October 16, 2025 when Harriet Williams, 89, set off for the great garage sale in the sky.

Born Harriet Elizabeth Gordon on August 17, 1936 to Martin and Catherine Gordon, Harriet lived her early years in Troy as many children did at the time: part of a large family without much money. Unlike her peers, she was born into the Gordon household, a family who, throughout their long lives, were a loquacious, occasionally fractious bunch. Nevertheless, as the youngest of seven – and the only girl – Harriet enjoyed some admittedly preferential treatment growing up, dressed always in beautiful clothes, either hand-stitched by her mother or obtained on annual retail expeditions to New York City.

As a girl, Harriet spent several summers at an old farmhouse in White Creek, New York. Her brothers Ken and Gene took advantage of the opportunities this rural idyll afforded to put their credulous younger sister up to antics that they had too much sense to attempt themselves. Once, they dared her to ride her bike down a hill with her eyes closed – an athletic feat which landed Harriet in a barbed wire fence. On another occasion, her brothers encouraged her to go pet the farm’s “friendly” rooster. As Harriet’s numerous cuts and scrapes proved, the rooster was rather less friendly than advertised. She also once refused a painting offered to her by an elderly woman who lived near White Creek because, “I was a kid and I didn’t think it was very good.” That old lady was Grandma Moses.

Harriet attended Troy City Schools and graduated from Troy High in 1954. After graduation, she attended the Austin School of Beauty Culture and worked several jobs around the area, including at Cluett Peabody & Company and the New York Telephone Company.

While working for the phone company Harriet was set up with the brother of a friend (he did own a convertible, after all). She and Tommy (more formally known as Thomas F. Williams, Jr.) went on their first date at Valente’s restaurant in Watervliet and, as the astute reader will have come to expect based on Tommy’s last name, they married at St. Brigid’s Church in Watervliet on October 17, 1959.

Thirteen months later, on November 28, 1960, Harriet and Tommy welcomed their first child, Scott Thomas, into the world. Just over a week shy of four years after that, they became a family of four when Leslie Ann was born on November 20, 1964.

In the early 1960s, the Williamses decamped to the suburbs, settling on Vincent Avenue in Colonie. There, Harriet became a member of the close social circle of other young families in the neighborhood. While the children got up to the free-range hijinks common to that less over-protective era, the adults enjoyed many memorable parties and get-togethers, at which Harriet would often act as hostess and Tommy as bartender because, as she long remembered, “He made the best whiskey sours.” Harriet remained friends with many Vincent Ave. neighbors for decades to come.

In 1974, the family moved north to Clifton Park, where she again became good friends with several neighbors. Once the kids were old enough to mostly look after themselves, Harriet returned to the workforce after several years as a homemaker, first working in a local middle school before building a successful twenty-plus year career as a real estate agent. Though she once jokingly (?) mused that she would have made a good madam (yes, that kind of madam), real estate was, perhaps, an ideal career for Harriet: she was a tough negotiator who did not suffer fools gladly and was motivated, above all else, by a good bargain.

In their later years, Harriet and Tommy spent more time traveling around the country and the world, in part so she could search every antique store she could find for “treasures” great and small. Harriet possessed deep knowledge about a wide variety of antiques and collectibles and her house remains filled, for better or worse, with the fruits of her many quests. On almost every Saturday morning in the warmer months, she left the house early, on the hunt for garage sales where, confident in her knowledge and abilities, she would never pay a quarter for something she knew she could get for a dime.

Eventually, Harriet became the grandmother of three grandchildren: Brett Williams, and Dana and Scott Fettinger. They were her pride and joy and she saw them as frequently as she could when they were young.

After Tommy passed away in 2000, Harriet stayed busy for many years spending as much time as possible with friends and family, and making derisive comments toward the Republican politicians she would see on television. In 2023, Harriet moved to the Wesley Senior Living Community in Saratoga Springs, where she managed to charm the staff in spite (or perhaps because) of her habit of dispensing sharp-tongued observations about – and sometimes to – her fellow residents.

Harriet, once met, was not easy to forget. Like all the Gordons, she was a talker with convictions that were as strongly held as they were freely shared; Harriet’s favorite people were often those with whom she could verbally spar (and woe to the customer service personnel who had to deal with her righteous indignation). Though she was a strong proponent of propriety and good manners, Harriet also enjoyed defying convention: she insisted, on a trip to Amsterdam in her 70s, upon seeing the red-light district, and confidently wore a beloved denim mini-skirt well into her 80s (somewhat to the chagrin of her family). She was formidable, generous, funny, fun, loving, and honest, sometimes to a fault. She loved animals, especially cats, and she avoided fresh vegetables as much as possible for her nearly nine decades of life.

Harriet was predeceased by her parents and by all six of her brothers: Edward, Robert, Norman, Kenneth, Donald, and Eugene. She was also preceded in death by her husband Thomas F. Williams, Jr., and her daughter Leslie A. Fettinger (Eric), who passed away in 2024. Harriet is survived by her son Scott T. Williams (Jill) of Latham, her grandchildren Brett T. Williams (Frances) of Albany, Dana E. Fettinger of Rensselaer, and Scott E. Fettinger of Gloversville, and her two great grandchildren, Rose A. and Eliza J. Williams. She is also survived by several nieces, nephews, and sisters-in-law.

During her final years living at Wesley, Harriet would tell anyone who would listen that she had been blessed with “the best family an old broad could ask for.” It seems fitting, then, that Harriet left to go see Tommy and the rest of the family awaiting her less than an hour before what would have been their sixty-sixth wedding anniversary. Her surviving family know that, one day, she will be waiting for them with freshly-baked lemon bread.

At Harriet’s request, services will be private. In lieu of flowers and in recognition of the compassionate care the Wesley Community provided Harriet, please consider a donation to The Wesley Foundation: https://www.thewesleycommunity.org/wesley-foundation/.