Lois White Wills

Lois White Wills

Died November 8, 2025

Spouse of the late James M. Beatty (d. 1970), Yvon Roy Leveillee (d. 1998), and Joe E. Wills (d. 2008), and domestic partner of the late Richard Wickman Sr. (d. 2022).

Mother of Deborah Beatty Mel (Khoun) of Boston, Massachusetts, and David Beatty (Carrie) of Bay Village, Ohio. Grandmother of seven; great-grandmother of seven.

Sister of George White Jr., Janice R. White, Judy Ghebeles, and David S. White (all deceased).

Daughter of the late George Sr. and Alice (Sherman) White.

Lois graduated from Council Rock High School in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1959. She was the first in her family to earn a college degree. In her work as a textile designer, she created hundreds of fabric patterns for children’s clothing. She was active in PEO International, Rhode Island and Florida chapters. She demonstrated her love of cooking by mentoring many young people in her extended family and by compiling an extensive recipe collection to be enjoyed by future generations.

Born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, Lois was raised on a farm where she churned butter, rode on the hay wagon, and helped feed the chickens, ducks, pig, and cow. She was active in 4-H, where she learned sewing and cooking, and where she had her first taste of working creatively with fabric. She moved to Rhode Island to attend RISD, and it was in Providence that she met her first husband, Jim, then a student at Brown University. They married and settled in Warwick.

After Jim’s death, she married Roy Leveillee in 1974. Lois worked as a textile designer for Health-Tex for 17 years and was active in Asbury United Methodist Church in Warwick. She was also a highly skilled seamstress. Upon retirement, she moved to Kissimmee, Florida, where she enjoyed line dancing, traveling, crafting, supporting her local church, and taking part in PEO activities. Her hands were always busy knitting and crocheting slippers and hats for her extended family, making small gift boxes from greeting cards, and creating other artful objects. After Roy’s death, she married Joe Wills, and, after Joe’s death, she spent several years with domestic partner Richard Wickman, Sr. She spent the last several years of her life near her son, David, in northeast Ohio, where she received support from the local PEO chapter.

A celebration of life for Lois will be held in 2026 (date to be determined) in Rhode Island. Interment will be at Quidnesset Memorial Cemetery, North Kingstown.

Memorial donations may be made to the Rhode Island School of Design or PEO International (DB Ohio Cleveland chapter).

www.WRcremation.com