Gudrun “Goody” Marie Watkins 1911 - 2000

WATKINS, JOHNSON

Posted By: Connie J Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/5/2015 at 22:00:53

5 April 2000

Onawa, Iowa—Gudrun “Goody” Marie Watkins, 88, of Tucson, Ariz. formerly of Onawa, died Sunday, April 2, 2000, in Chandler, Ariz.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at First Christian Church in Onawa, with the Rev. Donald Ludwick officiating. Burial will be in the Onawa Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, with prayer service at 7:30 p.m. at Rush Family Chapel in Onawa.

Mrs. Watkins was born July 2, 1911, in Chokio, Minn, the daughter of Carl O. and Nelle B. (Johnson) Johnson.

Following her mother’s death, she was raised by a neighbor, Ellen Dahl. She attended rural school in Minnesota.

She married Joseph Watkins on June 8, 1929, in Peoria, Ill. The Couple lived in Peoria for approximately two years before moving to Minnesota. They moved to Onawa in 1937. She was a homemaker.

Her husband died Jan. 7, 1984. She later moved to Tucson.

She was a member of First Christian Church and American Legion Auxiliary. She was a former member of Women’s Relief Corps and Rebeckah Lodge.

Survivors include her special friend, Lee Reeves of Mounds View, Minn.; four daughters, Jeanette and her husband, Kenneth Casperson, of Ute, Iowa, Evelyn Frecking of Glendale, Ariz., Gayle and her husband, Grady Smith of Phoenix, Ariz., and Dora and her husband, James Zerante of Mesa, Ariz.; five sons, Myron “Mike” and his wife, Donna, of West Des Moines, Clayton and his wife, Jo Marie, of Jasper, Tenn., Loren and his wife, Verna, of El Cajon, Calif., Richard and his wife, Maxine, of Chandler, Ariz., and Joseph “Joe” of Phoenix; a sister-in-law, Mabel Ewins of Bloomington, Ill.; 32 grandchildren, 49 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by three sisters, Agnes, Olive and Nancy; a daughter-in-law, Judith; and a granddaughter, Carla.