Watson, Carol Adams (1935-2012)
WATSON, ADAMS, RUSSELL, FORTE, KANE
Posted By: Paul Nagy, volunteer (email)
Date: 10/26/2012 at 22:58:59
Carol Adams Watson
February 23, 1935 - September 18, 2012Tucson, Arizona - Carol Adams Watson passed away peacefully at Peppi's House Tucson Medical Center Hospice in Tucson, Arizona, on September 18, 2012, as a result of congestive heart failure and valvular heart disease.
Carol was born on February 23, 1935, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Carroll and Velma Adams while her father was in medical school at the University of Nebraska. Her father's service as a physician in the U.S. Army during WWII led her to travel and live in several states while growing up. She graduated from Mason City High School in Mason City, Iowa, where her family settled in the late 1940s.
She subsequently attended Doane College and the University of South Dakota, earning a BA in Speech and Theatre, and the University of Iowa, earning her MA in English Education.
Carol taught courses in literature, composition, and theatre at several Iowa community colleges throughout her thirty-year teaching career, including twenty-five years at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) in Mason City.
In her last decade of teaching, she focused her attention primarily on serving students with remedial writing needs to ensure that these students could also access college opportunities, and she wrote a speech textbook used for the Communication Skills course at NIACC.
Carol directed or acted in dozens of theatre productions at the Black Hills Playhouse, the Mason City Community Theatre, and other venues and was recognized for her skill in directing musicals such as "Oklahoma" and "Guys and Dolls."
Carol moved to Tucson in 1997 and was an active member of Tap Sensation, a professional performing troupe of senior women, and served on its board, Tucson Stars On Tap, as Recording Secretary. She enjoyed a long-standing practice of crocheting, quilting, and reading fiction in her leisure time.
Among many Road Scholar lifelong learning programs she participated in, Carol treasured two: an intergenerational one with her granddaughters at Jamestown, Virginia, last summer and a week at Maui, Hawaii, this January.
Carol and her husband, Roger Watson, of Tucson, celebrated their thirty-seventh wedding anniversary on August 31. Carol is also survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Peter and Ellen Russell, of New York City; her daughter and son-in-law, Ellen Forte and Michael Kane, and her granddaughters, Anabel and Lily, of Washington, D.C.; her sister, Mary Jane Adams, of Arcadia, California; her brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Candace Adams, of Superior, Wisconsin; and her brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Linda Adams, of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
True to her dedication to teaching and learning, she donated her body to scientific research. Her independent and creative spirit and her commitment to women's rights and education will live through her family as well as through her contributions to the lives of her students and many friends.
A celebration of life memorial event will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the "Carol Adams Watson Memorial Scholarship Fund," NIACC Foundation, 500 College Drive, Mason City, IA 50401 or PBS/NPR or Planned Parenthood.
Published in Globe Gazette on September 27, 2012
Cerro Gordo Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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