Payne County Teacher Leaves ICU, Continues Recovery Following COVID-19

A community is rallying around a Payne County elementary school teacher just weeks after testing positive for COVID-19. 

Perkins-Tryon Intermediate School teacher Stacey Williams was hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19 about three weeks ago.

Williams is a fifth-grade math teacher. She was recently released from the ICU.  

It’s been a tense few weeks at Stillwater Head Start where Williams used to work.

“You know how you meet somebody sometime when you think they really can’t be that nice, Stacey is really that nice,” Stillwater Head Start disability services manager Paula Brown said.

Williams remains active in her church and community.

“It can get scary when somebody you care about is in the ICU and you don’t know how they are going to react to this virus,” Brown said. 

Williams’ husband, Jeff, is also recovering at home after also testing positive for COVID-19.  

The community is helping out where they can by starting a GoFundMe. Both parents of two kids are unable to work at the moment.  

“It’s been pretty neat because you can tell that Stacey is very connected with her community because I recognize some of the names coming in as people from several different parts of our community,” Stillwater Head Start lead teacher Sarah Barnes said. “From head start, from Perkins, from around town and all the different places.” 

It’s not clear what damage the virus has done to Williams internally. What friends do know is the virus doesn’t match the decent people that they are.