Meet Your City Council

Posted Date: 10/23/2023

Joel Williams has spent numerous years involved in city government. Currently in his ninth year as a city councilman, he also spent 13 years as City Clerk. Before that, he was on the Planning and Zoning Commission appointed by Mayor Dan Sherrell. 

His love of Real Estate led to him becoming a broker around 1980, which led to buying, selling, and trading properties over the years. He purchased Dairy Sweet in 1969 when it was a small room with 10 stools for high school students to have lunch and milkshakes. “Joel’s Restaurant” did so well that after 18 months, he doubled the size and added a jute box. Then he had to double the size again and went from seating for 10 to 50. The building is currently T’s BBQ and still feeding the community.

Joel married his wife Betty Cecil in 1959, and she worked at the Commercial Candy Company but would work the dining room of Joel’s during her lunch.

He was born in a home that was where the old football field was on Crooked Creek. “It’s interesting that I ended up opening a restaurant four blocks from where I grew up.”

Joel joined the National Guard in 1956 and served until 1965.  He stayed busy in Real Estate the restaurant business, had his pilot license in the 70s, and owned a couple of planes.

Joel and Betty have one daughter named Tammy, who has given them one granddaughter who lives in Dallas.