The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire
Anita Christopher’s family will celebrate her 90th birthday this Saturday, October 27, 2018 in Dallas, Tex.
Anita Myrtle Williams, a Tulsa native, is the daughter of the late William Danforth (WD) Williams and Mary S. Williams and the sister of the late David Owen Williams of Richmond, Va.
In 1945, Anita graduated from Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School. She attended Hampton Institute majoring in mathematics, and pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In the late 1940’s, Anita moved to Chicago to attend Northern Illinois College of Optometry.
While attending optometry school, Anita met Charles E. Christopher of Cleveland, Ohio who had returned from WWII. They were joined in holy matrimony on January 12, 1951. Drs Charles and Anita moved to Tulsa and started their optometry practice on Pine Street in the early 1950’s and practiced together for more than 50 years.
The couple was blessed with five children: Marilyn, Gloria, Leslie, Jan, and Charles II, six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Dr. Anita Christopher has been involved in many organizations, including the Elite Ladies, the Links, the Debonaire Bridge Club, and the Tulsa Jack and Jill chapter.
Anita served on the boards of the National Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation and the Ida Dennie Willis Museum.
In 2011, the Smithsonian Curator Paul Gardullo approached Anita and her brother David about their grandparents John and Loula Williams historic businesses on Tulsa’s Black Wall Street -The Dreamland Theater, Williams’s Confectionary Store and the Williams’s Garage. Paul interviewed and collected family heirlooms and artifacts from the family.
Their contributions are located in the Tulsa room at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The Oklahoma Eagle family wishes Dr. Anita Christopher a Happy Very Merry Birthday!
