Pearl Williams-Jones

Pearl Williams-Jones (June 28, 1931 – February 4, 1991) was an American gospel musician.

A native of Washington, D.C., Williams was the daughter of Smallwood Edmond Williams, pastor of the Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ. She attended public schools in the District, graduating from Charles Young Elementary, Brown Junior High School and Dunbar High School. She studied piano with Hazel Harrison and Natalie Hinderas while attending Howard University, from which she received both a bachelor's degree and a master's of music, She served as minister of music at her father's church and performed as a singer and pianist throughout the United States and Europe, A well-regarded scholar of gospel music, she spent decades as a professor of music at the University of the District of Columbia, where she developed the first degree program in the United States dedicated to the study and performance of gospel. For two decades she consulted with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and worked as an administrative staff member of its African Diaspora Advisory Group.

Williams-Jones received an honorary degree from Lynchburg College in 1972. She died in 1991 after an 18-month battle with cancer. She was married to Williams V. Jones, MD, with whom she had two children, Yvonne and Virgil Jr.