Claire Sink Williams

I hate to say it, but I have become a North Carolinian - after leaving Tennessee over 30 years ago, I've decided I really have to just give it up and make the change! I've lived in Charlotte for 23 years so it qualifies as"home" now.

After graduating from Central, I went to a private girls' college in Denver, CO for two years, then transferred back to Memphis State and got my B.S. in elementary education. I married a man I met in Colorado while he was in the Air Force and then taught school in Memphis for four years while he went to Memphis State - I said I would never teach public school again, and I have stuck with it! I never have. When he graduated, he took a job with an oil company, and we moved to Nashville where we lived for seven years. Our daughter Heather (now 32) was born there, and I got my master's in library science from Vanderbilt while living there. My husband's job transferred us first to Montgomery, AL (2 years), then Atlanta (2 years), and finally to Charlotte. We divorced a couple of years later. By then I was working for a healthcare consulting company as a marketing coordinator, then as administrative marketing manager for the account managers' group. I worked there for 13 years until a merger occurred during which I was down-sized right out of my job. I sold real estate for a year (hated that!), and then was offered a job as a Marketing Manager, later Communications Manager for a subsidiary company of the world's largest shipping company, Maersk Inc. I will retire in November of this year from that position, and I can hardly wait - since August I have been working just 4 days a week from home so am sliding into retirement. I will probably still do some part-time work, but no more going to the office every day!

My daughter is engaged with an April, 2008, wedding planned so we are working on that. I travel a lot - over to Europe a number of times, various locations in the Caribbean, Hawaii, all over U.S. - favorite places are southern France and the northern lake area of Italy. Plan to go to both as often as I can. I love to read, to go to the theatre - go out to dinner a lot with friends - just really love life! Only bump in the road - and a big one - was the death of my Mother in August 2006 - I had moved her here from Memphis 5 years ago. My Dad died over 20 years ago. So my reasons to go back to Memphis have really dwindled.

I've enjoyed reading the biographies of other "warriors" - think I'm the only one here in Charlotte. No one to sing the fight song with, but I still remember the words!

Claire