Helen Louise Williams, Vanessa Williams’ late mother, was remembered on Broadway this week.
The cast of “A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical,” honored the late matriarch of the Williams family, who passed away due to complications from acute liver failure on Dec. 28.
Helen was “a vocal music educator for over 40 years in the Ossining and Manhattanville School Districts, professor at Manhattanville College, and proud mother of singer Vanessa Williams and actor Chris Williams,” according to her obituary.
Given her musical background and affection for Broadway, it was only fitting that the show honored her by inviting 150 New York City music students to watch the performance, an insider shared with Page Six.
James Monroe Iglehart, who portrays the famed jazz musician in the show, led the cast in a New Orleans style procession from the stage and through the audience as they waved white handkerchiefs to celebrate her life, we’re told.
Vanessa, 61, is a producer on the show and “was greeted by [the] band outside of [the theater] Studio 54, where fans and patrons gathered to join a dance party on the street,” the source told us.
The Tony-nominated entertainer took time off from her current show playing Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada.”
June Ambrose, Gena Avery Knowles, Deborah Roberts, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bevy Smith and Vanessa’s “Ugly Betty” co-star Michael Urie were a few of the guests who joined in celebrating her mom.
Page Six last saw Vanessa’s mom at the opening of Louis Armstrong in November, where she was in great spirits, celebrating with the cast at an after-party at the Ziegfeld Ballroom.
She died in London, England, at age 85 after she’d attended the opening night of “Prada,” and 20 days after celebrating her birthday, Vanessa recalled in an Instagram post, offering “some reflections on her remarkable life.”
“It’s impossible to describe all she meant to everyone because each person saw a different fact of her,” she wrote. “Loyal friend to many, icy stares to a chosen few. We will miss it all,” Vanessa wrote.
