[citation needed] Blanche Hilyard Wilkins was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on December 1, 1876.

[5] Williams joined the literary department of the North Carolina School for the Colored Deaf and Blind in Raleigh in 1895.

[2] In 1899 Wilkins married Charles N. Williams, the hearing African American principal of the North Carolina school.

[5] The newspaper The Silent Worker ran a feature article on Wilkins in 1926, saying "[...] thanks to the excellent educational advantages, under able instructors, which she enjoyed at Faribault, she became the most accomplished deaf lady of her race in America.

"[2] In 2018 a newly built student dormitory at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf was named Wilkins Hall in her honor.