Date: 3/31/25 8:26 am From: Jim Williams <woodduck38...> Subject: [mou-net] Jude Williams
Judith Ann Hughes-Williams, Jude to friends and and family, died March 29. Cause of death was congestive heart failure. She was a beautiful woman of a certain age. She had two recent surgeries attempting to repair failed heart valves. She was offered a third try, but refused. She had had enough. She went home to die.
Jude first was a journalist, working for weekly newspapers in the Lake Minnetonka area, then partner for 20 years with her husband, Jim Williams, in a company they formed to produce marketing materials for the beauty-supply industry. After sale of that company she and Jim moved to their lake home in Wisconsin where she became a Realtor. They returned to the Lake Minnetonka area six years later.
Jude liked cars and horses and houses. She designed remodeling for the five homes she and Jim shared during their marriage of 47 years. They were a couple for 54 years. She liked cats and dogs and birds, becoming an accomplished birder, joining Jim and friends on birding trips throughout the country. Jude liked travel, well-polished fingernails, a cold Chardonnay, and dinner with friends.
She suffered a hemorrhagic stroke 22 years ago. It left her with partial paralysis on her right side and expressive aphasia. She regained most of her speech through hard work with therapists. The stroke erased all of her writing skills — vocabulary, spelling, punctuation. She recovered them because she was willing to do the work. She eventually regained her driver’s license, a day of celebration.
Jude would not be denied.
She is survived by her husband, two sons (Frank and Dean and their families), four step-children (Jill Varty, Jim L. Williams, Ann Ciardelli, and Elizabeth Mefford and their families, including their 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild), four brothers (Sidney, George, Keith, and Douglas Hughes and their families) and many friends.
Jude had been a member of the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union, and was active in Minnesota Connect Aphasia Now, an organization offering programs and support for people living with aphasia.
