Virginia Watson

A beloved member of her Dallas County community, Virginia Stevens Watson died on September 3 at the age of 93. She was born in the Marshall family home in Orrville, Alabama, and continued to live in the rambling old Victorian house, all alone,well past her ninetieth year. She was preceded in death by her husband, Raymond Watson, and her only child, Marshall Stevens Watson, whose widow, Sandra Watson Bickford, still survives.
Mrs. Watson lived her long life, very bravely, in the shadow of a terrible hereditary disease, hemophilia,an illness in which the blood doesn't clot and even a slight wound can cause uncontrollable bleeding. Affecting the male members of her family, it robbed Mrs. Watson of several uncles, her only brother, and eventually her only son. Virginia was especially close to her Marshall first cousins who lived next door. (Their father had been spared the disease that took the lives of his brothers.) Sallie Marshall Kellberg and the late Caroline Marshall Draughon were like sisters to Virginia, and she also was devoted to Ann Draughon Cousins and Ralph Draughon, Jr. , in the next generation. Like many genteel southern women of her generation, Virginia took a class called "Expressions" as a young girl, and she was noted throughout her life for her soft, cultivated speaking voice. Brought up to be ladylike, she also was warm and friendly and hospitable. A home economics graduate, she honed at the Women's College at Montevallo her considerable culinary talents, which she later shared , unstintingly, with her church, her community, and her family. She lived a quiet life but a very admirable one, and she will be remembered very affectionately by her kinfolk and her many friends, both white and black, in Dallas County, Alabama.