No. 743 Alaisea Fusi Johnson “Fusi” Williams, 2009

File — Box: 72, Folder: 16

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Fusi Williams was born in Tutuila, American Samoa. Her grandmother raised her in Pago Pago until she was twelve, when Ms. Williams went to join her birth family in Hawaii. Her father was in the US Navy. Her family is strongly religious, and Ms. Williams discusses her faith and she and her family’s LDS service at some length. She credits the Book of Mormon with helping her learn English. Ms. Williams graduated Farrington High School in Honolulu. She worked at a pineapple cannery after high school, then married a Navy man from Wenatchee, Washington, and followed him to San Diego in 1973. Her parents moved to Compton, California, in 1968. Ms. Williams and her first husband divorced. Her second husband, with whom she lived in Arizona, died in 1992, and she spent the next thirteen years caring for her mother, who died in 2005. At the time of the interview she lived in her mother’s house in Compton, and had three children, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. She talks about Samoan culture in the islands and Samoan LDS growth in California, discusses her sense of Samoan and American culture, and mentions that she wanted her children to learn Samoan.
Project: Pacific Islanders.
Interviewer: Savani Aupiu.

Dates

2009

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.