Melvina Marie Williams was born in Hastings, Nebraska on May 14, 1928 to James W. Riley and Bessie Louise Lewis. She attended Hastings College; she completed a course of study at Alehouse School of Beauty Culture in Omaha, Nebraska and finished in 1948, joining a cosmetology sorority in Omaha. After moving to Denver she attended the Community College of Denver, Red Rocks. She earned a BS in Human Service Work at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Following that she earned a MA in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley.

In 1957 she joined the Denver Cosmetology guild. She worked as an administrative assistant and a human resource consultant in Denver. She was a paraprofessional in the Denver Public Schools. She was a social service/parent involvement coordinator in Commerce City, CO. She was a vocational rehabilitation aid in Denver. She also had a cosmetology business in Denver.

Her first marriage was to Jimmy Gordon of Columbus, Ohio on July 11, 1946. With him she had two daughters, Mattie Marie and Melvina Louise. They divorced in November 1948. She then married Ferdinand Alfred Milton in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1951. With him she also had two daughters, Lia Adair and Vivian Le Ann. They divorced in 1969. Her third and final marriage was to Rev. Chester A. Williams in Hill City, Kansas in 1997. She moved to Nicodemus, Kansas with him.

Melvina Williams died on February 25, 2013. She is buried in Mt. Olive Cemetery in Bogue, Kansas.