Many years ago, I was renting a room from a friend in a California coastal town. She had gone to high school with the current Mrs. Williams, Debbie Meyer. It was the night of the Andy Williams Christmas show and I came home to find my friend and Debbie, a truly beautiful young woman at the time, both kneeling on the living room carpet watching Andy Williams on TV.

Williams was already divorced from his previous wife, Claudine Longet, and had been living with Debbie for some time but for the purposes of the TV Special, the network had asked Williams to appear with his children and their mother and not with his girlfriend. Since they were filming in his home, this meant Debbie had to make herself scarce and she was rather put out about it.

There she sat on the floor in her loveliness (honest, she was gorgeous even in t-shirt and shorts and with no makeup) and periodically she would moan, "Oh, Howard." My friend explained that Andy Williams's real first name is Howard.

Then, presumably just for the cameras, Williams gave his ex-wife a peck on the cheek and Debbie squealed and fell over sideways.

I hate to be smiling when I tell this story but it was funny because it didn't involve me directly and everyone who was involved was a bit larger than life. This, BTW was about eight years after Claudine Longet had been tried for murder in the killing of HER boyfriend.

I wish the best for Debbie and all of Mr. Williams family and friends, he did have a lovely voice and I never heard of him mistreating anyone.

Hugs,
Erin