While fellow classmates in grade school were outside playing or in the house watching television, Martha Williams had one activity that she could do endlessly — watch her mother sew.
Williams would watch from different angles, and by the time she reached eighth grade she knew the profession she would pursue: seamstress.
“If you only knew how many hours I spent [watching my mother]. … No one ever taught me how to sew,” remembered Williams. “I learned from watching my family. I would stand at someone’s elbow or sit across from the [sewing] machine and watch.”…