Yvette Williams Retirement Village
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Care is not an ‘add on’ at a Ryman village, it is built into the fabric of our villages from the very beginning. It’s comforting for couples and friends to know they can still be near each other even if their health needs are different.
Yvette Williams care centre offers the best of hospital and dementia care. Like all aspects of our villages, we constantly look for ways to improve both the care we provide and the innovation behind it. Care is customised using our myRyman Care app and residents love the food in our seasonal Delicious menu, which is prepared fresh on site by village chefs.
Yvette Williams is one of over 90 percent of established Ryman villages that have been awarded 4-year certification by the Ministry of Health. It’s recognised as the ‘gold standard’ in care.
Each Ryman village is named in honour of a Kiwi or Aussie trailblazer: Anthony Wilding, Lady Diana Isaac, Evelyn Page. They pushed further and set the bar high for others to aspire to. In creating communities that challenge the expectations of ageing, Ryman villages are also setting the bar high. They’re demonstrating that a retirement lifestyle brimming with new experiences, connections and fulfilment is something we should aspire to. Our Kiwi and Aussie namesakes represent the measure of inspiration, while Ryman villages represent the measure of retirement living.
Yvette Williams (1929-2019)
Dame Yvette Winifred Corlett DNZM, MBE (nee Williams) was an exceptional Olympic athlete and world record holder. One of New Zealand’s most versatile athletes, Williams grasped every available opportunity and worked tirelessly to achieve excellence.
After being left off the New Zealand team travelling to London for the 1948 Olympics, Williams went on to win the long jump title at the British Empire Games held in Auckland in 1950. Breaking the New Zealand and British Empire records with her jump of 5.91m, she firmly secured her selection for the next Olympic Games – Helsinki, 1952 – where she won gold and set a new Olympic record. She was named New Zealand Sportsperson of the year in both 1950 and 1952 respectively.
In the 1953 New Year’s Honours, Williams became a Member of the Order of the British Empire for service to athletics. The following year in Gisborne she broke the world record in women’s long jump, with a leap of 6.28m.
The decorated athlete and world record breaker was honoured as Athletics New Zealand's Athlete of the Century’ in 1987 with 21 national athletic titles to her name. After being inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2011 New Year’s Honours list.
Giving back to her community was important to Williams. In retirement, she coached athletics in Auckland and trained intellectually disabled athletes for the Special Olympics. In 2019 Williams was posthumously promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her service to athletics.
Yvette Williams: Leaping into History by David Riley is a detailed memoir with anecdotal accounts of this resilient athlete’s life experiences.
