Joscelyn Barnitz Williams Hill

Joscelyn Williams Hill died December 22, 2025 in Asheville. Born in Point Pleasant, N.J. on Jan. 23, 1931,
she was the daughter of the late Joscelyn McDowell Williams of Waynesville, N.C. and the late Josiah Franklin
Williams of York, Pa. Her husband Verne Everette Hill of Hickory, N.C., died in 1984.

Mrs. Hill, known as Lynn, grew up in Morganton, Hendersonville and Asheville, where she was graduated from
Lee-Edwards High School in 1948. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in
biology, and taught at Valley Springs High School and worked at an Oak Ridge laboratory before she met her husband Verne.

After her marriage in 1955, the couple lived for four years in Maricabo, Venezuela before moving to Atlanta in 1959.
There she was president of the Georgia Botanical Society and a speaker for Atlanta Audubon. Lynn and Verne
were founding trustees of the Georgia Conservancy in 1967, and Lynn was volunteer director of the conservancy for 14 months.

After moving to Athens, Ga., in 1976 and restoring an 1870s cottage there, Lynn became active in historic preservation
projects with the Athens Clark Heritage Fund. She also earned a master’s degree in plant taxonomy at the University of
Georgia, where she worked in the Botany Department laboratories.

Lynn retired from the university in 1997 and moved to Asheville to help care for two aging aunts. She became active
in the AAUW and the Woman’s Civic Club of Asheville. She served on the board of the Asheville Chamber Music Series,
the board of the Newton Academy Cemetery and the Friends of the Library of Warren Wilson College. She was a
patron of the arts in many cultural areas.

She is survived by her cousin, Linda Lever of Windsor, England and her goddaughter, Merrimon Burwell Oxley of
Rutherfordton, N.C., and her husband James Oxley.

At her request, no services are planned.