Williamson, Jerry Gee Jackson 08/14/1928 ~ 05/13/2014 SAN DIEGO -- Jerry Gee Jackson Williamson, a second- generation San Diegan, was the only child of the late newspaperwoman Eileen Jackson and the late artist-educator Everett Gee Jackson. Her maternal grandparents arrived in San Diego as children in the 1880s. Mrs. Williamson attended Francis Parker and graduated from San Diego High School in 1946, and received a BA in English from Stanford in 1950. As a teen-ager, she played tennis competitively in tournaments throughout California. In the summer following her graduation from high school, she competed in the National Junior Girls' (18-and-under) Championship, and in the Women's National Championship, at Forest Hills. In her freshman year, she enjoyed playing for Stanford in a "Women's Sports Day" against women from UC Berkeley. She was very pleased when in 1995 Stanford presented her with its Block S award, an honorary award that the university sent to Stanford's Pre-Title IX women athletes. One of the highlights of her life occurred in 1980 during a friendly mixed-doubles match with the opera star Luciano Pavarotti. After Mrs. Williamson had engaged Mr. Pavarotti in a lengthy rally, she finally put the ball past him. At that, he stretched out his arms toward her, and exclaimed, "Brava!" Mrs. Williamson, a great opera fan, said that it just didn't get any better than that. In 1951 she married her first husband, Duncan Waterman, of Westport, Connecticut, a stockbroker in San Diego from 1959 until his death in 1965. They had two sons. In 1967 she married Bay Area architect Tom Williamson, of the Bay Area, a widower with a young daughter. He and Mrs. Williamson successfully put their two families together and had a daughter in 1970. She held several positions on the board of the San Diego Junior League in the 1960s and on the board of Madcaps in the 1970s. She was a member of the Latin American Arts Committee at the San Diego Museum of Art. She also served on the board of the San Diego County Committee of The Colonial Dames of America. In November 2000 the San Diego Historical Society published her book Eileen, a biography of her journalist mother, Eileen Jackson. Mrs. Williamson is survived by her husband, Tom; two sons, Stephen Waterman of Point Loma and Michael Waterman of La Mesa; two daughters, Tabi Kapple of Eureka and Hildy Hammer of Scripps Ranch; twelve grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Barnes Junior Tennis Center. A private memorial for family and friends will be held June 7.

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Published in San Diego Union-Tribune on May 25, 2014.