SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — During the holiday season, many families are grieving the loss of a loved one.

LeOtis Williams, a Suffolk city councilman, turned the memory of his mom into a movement to give back.

Last month, Williams alongside his siblings, elected officials, organizations and 200 volunteers, hosted the 22nd Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway.

“We’ve been able to give out more than 40,000 turkeys, which equates to over 198,000 people,” Williams said during opening statements. “We’ve had 3,700 volunteers in 22 years. We have over 200 volunteers. It started off as a dream. I asked the Lord, ‘What can I do?’

“My passion has always been kids and seniors. [I asked the Lord] ‘What can I do that I can help people?’ He laid in my spirit, feeding people. That’s what started me to having this event. We’ve got people coming from North Carolina. We’ve got people coming from Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and some from Hampton. We got people here from all over. We’ve got so many organizations that have been a part of this.”

Williams was re-elected in the November election. However, he was hosting the ‘day of caring and giving back’ food giveaway before he was elected to city council.  

“We have a lot to be thankful for in the season,” said Rep. Bobby Scott. “We just had an election where we had the opportunity to select candidates of our choice, some elections went the way we wanted. Some didn’t, but we were able to elect one candidate of choice LeOtis Williams.”

Suffolk Sheriff David Miles said Williams’ event is what brings the holiday season to the forefront.

“As a child, it wasn’t the holiday of Christmas season until The Temptations said, ‘in my mind’ or until Donny Hathaway said, ‘This Christmas.’ However, as an adult, this event for me is when the holiday season begins,” Miles said. “As a child, I looked forward to what I was going to get, but as an adult, I look forward to opportunities to give.”

Williams walked through the long line, greeting everyone before the volunteers gave away 2,700 turkeys, along with carrots and cabbage. 

“It makes you feel so good inside, knowing that you can make a difference in someone’s life, because you cannot look at a person and see what they’re going through,” Williams said. 

Residents from Chesapeake, Hampton, Smithfield, Virginia Beach, and as far away as North Carolina, signed up for the items ahead of Thanksgiving. 

“Our whole entire family, we look forward to be a part of it,” said Williams’ sister Mavis Penn. “We have a sister that came in from California to support it as well. Everyone wants to jump in together and just make this a well-oiled machine effort in the city.”

The success of the turkey day is a testament to the values instilled by their mother, Marvis Williams-Milteer.

“My mother, the late Marvis Williams-Milteer, instilled in all of her kids … that desire to want to be a blessing to others,” Williams said. “I remember when I was growing up, we didn’t have a whole lot, but I remember people coming to the house that didn’t have a meal and our mother would share our table, our food with them, and she brought us up that way. I thank God for my mother.”

Williams’ fondest memories include Thanksgiving with his family of 40 people, all enjoying food.

“She was a caterer and of course, she loved to cook,” Williams said. “I remember Thanksgiving. We would have the extra people over. I’m [thinking] ‘Who’s this?’ [It would be] somebody that she just met and said, ‘Come on over.’ They would sit at our table and have a meal with us. That became part of life for us, and we would just enjoy it.”

Thirty years after her untimely death, Williams is at a place in his life to share what happened to her in 1994.

“Feb. 12, 1994. I received a call, I guess it was about 1:45 a.m.,” Williams said. “It was my little brother. He was telling me that I needed to get over here quick, [that] our mom had been shot. I remember jumping up out the bed and I said, ‘Oh my God!’ I just didn’t know what to expect.”

He said with tears in his eyes, “I remember to this day…  it hurts so bad,” Williams said with tears in his eyes. “She [was] laying on the side of the bed, just lifeless. Her eyes rolled back in her head and foaming from the mouth… it’s still hurts.”

The suspects were quickly arrested.

“It really didn’t take long to find out who committed the crime,” Williams said, “because the mom was well-known. It wound up being her ex-boyfriend and his son.”

James H. Knight and James Herbert Knight Jr. were convicted of the deadly shooting, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

“They had broken up a week or two prior to and he wanted to get back together, and she didn’t want to get back together with him,” Williams said. “She wanted to move on. I guess he decided that ‘Hey, if I can’t have you, no one will.’ He shot through the bedroom window with a shotgun using buckshots. It killed mom instantly because it hit one of the main arteries. My nephew was there with her, and it hit him in his eye, which he’s blind now [in one eye].”

The last three decades were difficult every holiday season, as the Williams family gathers for the parole hearings for Knight Jr. 

“I still can’t wrap my head around the son because she brought him in and treated him like a son,” Williams said. “So, how can you kill someone that you call mom?

“The father, he has passed. He passed away in prison. The son is still in prison. Usually, each year between November and January is when we have the parole board hearings. That in itself, it’s just been hard on us. But we realized that if we didn’t show up for these parole board hearings, that he could get out. My siblings, my grandkids, friends and other family members, when we go to a parole board, whether it’s in person or whether it is by Zoom, the room is going to have 15 or 16 people to show our support. [Saying] ‘Hey, this is still affecting us. Please don’t let this guy get out of jail because it just hurts.'”

Williams said his mother’s death impacted two families significantly. 

“It affected their family as well as our families,” Williams said. “Their family is suffering because now the father and son is no longer with them and will suffer because my mother is no longer with us.”

Williams works to keep his mom’s legacy of kindness alive.

“It’s one of those things that you talk about among your family members, but you don’t really want the public to know how much it hurts,” Williams said. “It’s time [to share her story] because of my position. I want people to know what my struggle, what I’m going through, and what my family is going through. But I love people. … She taught us that.”

He is hopeful that sharing her story will address abusive relationships.

“Domestic violence, there’s no place in our society for that,” Williams said. “There’s no place, you know, of a person choose to move on to allow that person to move on.

“Marvis Williams Milteer, my mama. That’s my heart and … She will always be my heart.”

Williams is already planning for the 2025 turkey giveaway, keeping in mind his mother’s desire to be a blessing to others.

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