Poverty caused Williams to leave school at fourteen to work with her mother at a laundry,[1] although she eventually graduated from Pacific Union College in 1987.
She sang at church and on street corners, inspired by a wide range of musicians, including Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Smith Jubilee Singers.
In 1946, while visiting a friend in Philadelphia, Williams happened to sing before an audience that included Clara and Gertrude Ward.
In 1992, critic and music historian Dave McGee, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide,[2] said "One will come away from her recordings believing that she was nothing less than the greatest singer ever".
[3] Williams was invited to join the Ward Singers when they heard her singing during a visit to a close friend in Philadelphia in 1946.
The group's career recovered, however, in 1961, when it appeared in Black Nativity, an Off-Broadway production, and toured across North America and Europe.
While in Miami for her mother's funeral, she felt re-inspired to continue her career and began touring college campuses across the country.
On Hootenanny, a musical variety television show, she performed "Packin' Up" and "I've Got To Live The Life I Sing About In My Song" as Marion Williams and Stars of Faith.
Williams' singing helped make the Ward Singers nationally popular when they began recording in 1948, and also inspired rock and roll pioneer Little Richard's signature wail.
Williams was honored by the MacArthur Foundation in 1993, stating that she was among "the last surviving links to gospel's golden age...one of the most versatile singers of her generation.