Manie Watson

Manie Mardell Huneycutt Watson, wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother and great-grandmother of Mesa, Arizona, passed away August 20, 2013, at the age of 92. She was born May 7, 1921, in Fordyce, Arkansas, the second of seven children of Jason and Tessie Huneycutt. Her childhood was happily spent tending cotton, milking cows, feeding chickens, fetching eggs, surviving the Great Depression and nurturing her five brothers and younger sister. Surviving siblings in Texas and Louisiana include the Huneycutt boys, James, Archer Wayburn, and Hadley Russell, and sister, Darlene Wilson. Her brothers Adrian and Leonard Newt Huneycutt passed away before her. As a young adult, she left Arkansas for San Luis Obispo, California, where brother, Adrian, was enlisted in the Army during World War II. She was an inspector at the laundry. It was here that she met Tech Sergeant, William Downing Watson, of the 557 Field Artillery Battalion stationed at Camp Roberts. After his deployment in 1944, Manie left California and worked as an inspector on the B-52 program in Detroit. Upon “Bill’s” return from Europe in 1945, they married and began their life together in an apartment over the Piggly Wiggly Store on Main Avenue in Durango, Colorado. They raised sons, William Downing, III, (Reston, Virginia, wife Dolores Boisclair) and Thomas Michael (Helena, Montana, wife Terri Dean), and daughter, Mary Deborah (Mesa, Arizona, husband Richard Bradford), and spent 35 happy years at the home they built on Junction Creek. They then moved to Mesa, Arizona. In later years, and following Bill’s death in 1991, Manie loved and enjoyed her children and spouses, 10 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. Manie made strong friends wherever she lived. In Durango, she remembered Agnes Nelson, Isabel Dwyer, Emma Thompson, Alma Phillips, Nellie Lynn, Doris Black, and Edie Anesi long after their parting. In Mesa, Arizona, she cared deeply for Bruce and Ethel, Ray, Yola, Shirley and Elena. These are wonderful people.
Her flower gardens were the best in the Durango and Mesa neighborhoods, her jams and jellies terrific, her canning quite good and lemon meringue and cherry pie-- the best. In late summer and fall, the garden vegetables were served daily and were splendid: corn, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and spuds. Bill grew them, and Manie harvested and cooked them. There were also fresh strawberries, raspberries, currents, pie cherries and apples from the yard. They hunted mushrooms and chokecherries in season, and she prepared them for table using recipes from a different era. During fishing season, trout was served every Friday. A bit of her cooking was marginal. Never was roast beef more overcooked and dry.
The grandchildren remember traveling with Manie and Bill in the Bronco over the jeep trails of southwestern Colorado. There were frightful trips and great picnics. Each of her children and spouses, grandchildren and spouses and great-grandchildren has a quilt of her making. Much love and care were stitched in. Her house was well dusted, her checkbook balanced, and her opinions black or white, never grey. Any prejudices from an earlier life gave way in her later life to full and complete compassion and understanding for every background, inclination and ethnicity. She remained skeptical of politicians and universally sided with an underdog or someone down on their luck. She dressed modestly (sometimes badly) and wore makeup on special occasions. She was wonderful in her singular way. (At least one and maybe several grandchildren carry on her personality). She considered her life blessed, but she would never admit it. Her primary caregivers in her later years were her daughter, Deborah, and her son-in-law, Dick. She appreciated them greatly and loved them dearly. Manie Watson will be missed. She resides in Greenmount Cemetery in Durango where she will share a monument with her loving husband, Bill, near several other Watsons and Lechners of the extended family.