St. Louis Walk of Fame Star - Tennessee Williams

The St. Louis Walk of Fame is located along the 6 blocks that make up the Delmar Loop. Using brass stars and informative plaques, it was created in order to honor notable St. Louisans who have made significant contributions to American culture. Among the 150+ people honored is American playwright Tennessee Williams. He is known for plays like “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947), and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955). He moved to St. Louis with his family in 1918 at age seven and remained there until he transferred to the University of Iowa in 1937.

Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams III in Columbus, Mississippi on March 26th, 1911. He was the second of three children born to Cornelius Coffin Williams and Edwina Dakin Williams. His home life was very troubled with his father struggling with alcoholism and both of his parents fighting constantly. At school, he was bullied so much that he was sent to live with his grandparents in Mississippi for a year. When he returned home, his mother gifted him a typewriter which launched his writing career. He wrote his first article entitled "Isolated" in 1924 for the Ben Hewlett Junior High newspaper. He and his family moved to St. Louis when he was seven years old in 1918. The family lived in several houses in St. Louis, with the most notable being 4633 Westminster. It is believed that this is the apartment his play “The Glass Menagerie” is based upon. While in Missouri, Williams attended University City High where his writing began gaining attention. During this period, he wrote two articles for national magazines. He attended the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1929 where he wrote his first play entitled "Beauty is the Word." Eventually, his father made him leave school to work at he International Shoe Company downtown where Cornelius was an executive. He continued to write during this time and in 1937, his plays "The Fugitive Kind" and "Candles to the Sun" were staged in St. Louis. That same year, his sister Rose as a mental breakdown from which she never recovered. She had struggled with schizophrenia and had a prefrontal lobotomy in order to treat it. She was institutionalized for the rest of her life. Williams was close with Rose and she inspired some of his plays. Eventually, Williams enrolled in the University of Iowa and graduated in 1938 with a degree in English. In 1939, he moved to New Orleans where he began going by Tennessee, a nickname given to him in college due to his Southern drawl.

In 1940, he began traveling and had to work odd jobs or rely on the support of his family or strangers for money. His first professionally staged play was entitled "Battle of Angels" and was received poorly. It wasn't until 1944 that he would find success as a playwright when his play "The Glass Menagerie" was staged in Chicago. He would go on to write several successful, award-winning plays over the next couple decades. In 1963, his personal secretary and partner Frank Merlo died of lung cancer which sent Williams into a deep depression. Abusing drugs and alcohol, his writing career suffered and never recovered. In 1969, Williams had a falling out with his brother Dakin who coerced him into going to St. Louis by lying about their mother being ill. When Williams arrived, he was committed to the psychiatric ward at Barnes Hospital for drug and alcohol abuse. Although the treatment helped him, Williams continued to struggle with addiction and the brothers were estranged for the rest of Williams' life afterward. Williams died in a New York hotel room at age 71 in 1983. It is said that he died by choking on a bottle cap he swallowed, but this claim has been disputed. He wanted his ashes to be spread at the Gulf of Mexico, where poet Hart Crane (one of his inspirations) committed suicide by jumping off a cruise ship in 1932. However, Dakin had him buried in Cavalry Cemetery in St. Louis, despite the fact that it was well known that Williams hated St. Louis. In an interview he once stated: “I found St. Louisans cold, smug, complacent, intolerant, stupid, and provincial… I hated the place.” It is suspected that Dakin had him buried in St. Louis as some form of revenge after their falling out.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. Accessed October 24th, 2022. https://www.twstl.org/biography.

Giegerich, Steve. Why Tennessee Williams rests for eternity in the city he openly despised, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. February 19th, 2017. Accessed October 24th, 2022.

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Tennessee Williams, St. Louis Walk of Fame. Accessed October 24th, 2022. https://stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductee/tennessee-williams/.

Tennessee Williams Tour, St. Louis LGBT History Project. Accessed October 24th, 2022. http://www.stlouislgbthistory.com/about/services/tours/tennessee-williams-tour.html.

Welcome to the St. Louis Walk of Fame!, St. Louis Walk of Fame. Accessed October 24th, 2022. https://stlouiswalkoffame.org/.

Barnett, Todd. Tennessee Williams, Historic Missourians SHSMO. Accessed October 24th, 2022. https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/tennessee-williams.

Gussow, Mel. Rose Williams, 86, Sister and the Muse of Playwright, The New York Times. September 7th, 1996. Accessed October 24th, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/07/arts/rose-williams-86-sister-and-the-muse-of-playwright.html#:~:text=As%20a%20young%20woman%2C%20Ms,that's%20more%20of%20a%20lady..