Williams, Kim, 1923-1986

Kim Williams was born Elizabeth Ardea Kandiko on September 21, 1923, in Hudson, New York, to Hungarian immigrant parents. Kim was the fourth of seven children (six girls and one boy), and grew up on a farm in Gallatin Township, New York. She graduated from Hudson High School in 1940, then attended Cornell University where she received a degree in human ecology--home economics, food, and nutrition--with a minor in botany, in 1944. After graduation she worked for a variety of publications, including a stint as a copy girl for the Los Angeles Examiner, and in New York at Flower Grower magazine. She also wrote poetry and about personal experiences.

She met and married Mel Williams in 1951. His career as a mining engineer took them to Santiago, Chile, where they lived for 20 years. While in Chile, Kim wrote numerous poems, plays, short stories, wrote a newspaper column, taught English at the Catholic University of Chile, and wrote and published two books: High Heels in the Andes and Wild Animals of Chile .

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