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Growing up, daughters Clare and Chase never thought of their parents, journalist Dick and ABC news correspondent Rebecca Chase Williams as superstars. But in death, their impact was realized.
The couple was honored posthumously at the Nov. 10 Atlanta Press Club into its hall of fame at Cobb Energy Center. Clare Stevens and Chase Cooper accepted the awards with a heartfelt speech that revealed their admiration for their parents both as people and journalists.
“We knew them as parents and phenomenal human beings, not as Emmy-award winning journalists, so this is all very surreal,” Cooper said. “There’s something about just ‘casually’ meeting (network news anchor) Peter Jennings growing up.”
Colleagues and other honorees were complementary of the couple during the tribute at the event.
Russ Spencer, who has been an anchored at Fox 5 Atlanta since 1995, recalled one of the last communications he had with Williams, shortly after Cooper gave birth to Williams’ first grandchild.
“I saw a picture on Facebook of him holding his first grandchild, and texted him,” Spencer recalled. “He answered back that he was in hospice in Arkansas and was so happy that his children had ‘kidnapped’ him from Atlanta.”
“He also said he had both eyes open and that he knew ‘how this story ends,’ yet he was still so grateful for the time he had left,” Spencer said.
The 77-year-old television talk show host, editorial writer and former owner and publisher of the Dunwoody Crier, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 20 at his daughter’s home in Arkansas.
The multi-talented Williams wore many hats, including a 30-year stint as a high school basketball referee, a newspaper columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a Georgetown University recruiter and a behind-the-scenes advocate for the formation of the cities of Brookhaven and Dunwoody.
His wife, Rebecca Chase Williams, who died in 2020, was a longtime ABC news correspondent and the second mayor of Brookhaven. She was known informally as the founding mother of Brookhaven, having worked behind the scenes during the area’s fight for cityhood.
Sportscaster Chuck Dowdle, a close friend and the former Georgia Bulldog Network’s sideline reporter, called Chase Williams her husband’s “journalistic match.”
Jeff Dickerson, who presented Stevens and Cooper with the Williams’ awards, called Williams “one of the most loyal friends one could ever have.”
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