Woodie Lee Williams was born in 1927 in New Bremen, Austin County, as the sixth child (fourth son) to Ben and Lillie Williams. Like his father and seven brothers, he worked for local German families and acquired German fluently. Woodie Williams also served as a minister to his community. In 1994, Cornelia Küffner, a German Master's student, met Woodie by accident at his residence in Industry. Woodie Williams spoke better German than many of the Germans she had spoken to. When asked if he also spoke German with the Texas-Germans of Industry, Williams responded: "Die Weißen sprechen nicht mit uns Deutsch" (The whites don't speak German with us). As his niece Linda Maddison recalls in the audio below, however, this did not keep Woodie from occasionally startling local Germans by engaging them in a German conversation together with his brothers.