Top seed Williams was forced to play some of her best tennis by resolute Kerber in an engrossing Centre Court duel in which her formidable firepower proved decisive in a 7-5 6-3 over her German opponent.
Kerber had stopped Williams in the Australian Open final to win her first grand slam title and last month Spain's Garbine Muguruza also kept the 34-year-old waiting to equal Graf's mark when she beat her in the French Open final.
Williams, who racked up grand slam number 21 against Muguruza at last year's Wimbledon, also stumbled at the 2015 U.S. Open, losing to Roberta Vinci in the semi-finals when a calendar year Grand Slam and Graf's record loomed.
But this time Williams would not be denied.
To her great credit fourth seed Kerber used her skilful shot placement and scrambling ability to stay in contention throughout a fascinating match of contrasting styles.
But with the Williams serve at its destructive best there was only so much punishment the 28-year-old Kerber could absorb on a breezy Centre Court.
The end came quickly when the German was broken for the second time in the match in the seventh game of the second set and Williams roared to the title with a love game, sealing victory with a simple volley before collapsing to the turf.
Masterful Murray delivers again for grateful nation
Three years after a nation held its breath, more in hope than expectation, as Murray took on and defeated ironman Novak Djokovic to end 77 years of pain, the 29-year-old delivered another command performance, winning 6-4 7-6(3) 7-6(2).
It was more comfortable than the scoreline suggested as a razor-sharp Murray dictated play from start to finish.
He committed a miserly 12 unforced errors, blunted the 140mph first serves whizzing his way and even reduced the normally Zen-like Raonic to venting his frustration.
The near hysteria of 2013 turned to expectation this time as defending champion Djokovic, Murray's bogeyman who beat him in this year's Australian and French Open finals, lost early.
It left the door open for Murray and when sixth seed Raonic knocked out seven-times champion Roger Federer to scupper hopes of a dream finale, many appeared to take for granted that the Scot would be hugging the Challenge Cup again before he walked on Centre Court to contest his 11th grand slam final.
Understandably so, seeing as he had started the previous 10, all against Djokovic and Federer, as underdog.
That created its own pressure but Murray hid it well in a near-faultless two hours 48 minutes in the Centre Court sunshine as he added a second Wimbledon crown to his 2012 U.S. Open title and gold medal from the London Olympics.
He is expected to head to Serbia next week for a Davis Cup quarter-final, having almost single-handedly won the trophy for Britain last year. Then it's on to Rio to defend his Olympic crown.
No wonder the player once regarded as a surly teenager with bad hair is now a British sporting icon.
