[3] Brought up in a children's home in Tonyrefail, and later adopted by the Llewellyn family, she worked in a factory and then won a scholarship to the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
In 1979, she had her biggest UK hit, "He Was Beautiful", a song based on the already well-known theme from The Deer Hunter with lyrics by Cleo Laine.
[5] Other engagements in the United States included five concerts with Bob Hope and an appearance with Rosemary Clooney.
In the early 1980s Williams took ownership of a public house at Winkfield near Ascot in Berkshire named 'The Pheasant Plucker', so named by her “extrovert” second husband and manager Welshman Edward Jones – combining running it with appearances on the club circuit, before relocating to New York in the early 1990s.
In 2006, she performed at the Brecon Jazz Festival, and was later admitted to the Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.