Ruth Carleen Watson

Carleen Watson was born as Ruth Carleen Jones in Houston, Texas on June 27, 1926. Tragically, her mother Ermine Jones died of appendicitis when Carleen was 8 months old. Her father Carl Jones, a wounded veteran of World War 1, was unable to raise Carleen and her sister Doris by himself. Carl was working in the electric department of Houston, but he could not stay in Houston. He had to leave Houston to get away from its humid climate, because of his war injuries.

Carl had courageously volunteered to join the Canadian Army to fight in World War 1 in 1914, to defend Europe against tyranny. He did this while America was officially “neutral”, because of President Woodrow Wilson’s liberal pacifist leanings. But President Wilson was allowing American companies to trade with both sides, to the great benefit of Germany and America. In effect, Wilson was making huge American profits from the spilling of European blood, and was strengthening Germany in the process. In her last years, Carleen realized that her father had witnessed this, and that he had strongly objected to the policy. Carleen made it a point to tell her sons and others, about the story of her father Carl fighting in World War 1, before America entered the war.

Many Americans rejected this immoral policy of “neutrality” and immoral trade, and they answered the call to risk their lives and fight for freedom in Europe, while our American President was letting Europe be destroyed. America did not enter the war until 1917. Carl was one of thousands of volunteers who joined the Canadian Army prior to that, to fight against tyranny and terror in Europe, while the American President was hugely profiting from it.

Carl was in several terrible battles. He was wounded in his head, lost a piece of his skull, and the doctors installed a metal plate. Then his lungs were damaged by poison mustard gas, used by the Germans. He developed lung disease, which plagued him when he came back home to Houston, which has a very humid climate. Carl worked for several years in Houston, in the new City Electric Department, and also worked on the great Hoover Dam in the early 1930’s as an electric technician. Carl did very well financially, but he was suffering physically, because of his severe lung injuries. Doctors advised him that he had to move away from Houston to a drier climate for his health; for his very life. Austin was also too humid. Carl decided to move to California, but he provided money and property and stocks to take care of his two young daughters. He bought an entire row of lots on Avenue G in Austin, for this purpose, deeded to Carleen’s grandfather Walter Keene.

After Carl moved to a dry desert area of California, in San Bernardino, the family in Austin did not hear from him much, other than letters, and they did not tell Carleen much about her father. It took Carleen many decades to figure out all this history of her father, and when she did figure it out, she was very proud of him. He was missing from her life, but he loved her and her sister Doris very much and did all he could to provide for them. This was shown in a bundle of letters that Aunt Pauleen gave to Carleen, after Carl had died. The letters showed Carleen how much her father cared for her, and provided for her.

With the monetary support Carl provided, Ruth and her older sister Doris were raised by her loving grandparents, Walter and Arminda Keene, in Austin. They had moved to Austin years before, from the Red River area of Texas and Oklahoma, where their families were from. Walter was later known in the family as “Grampy”, and he worked at the State School for the mentally retarded, as their gardener and carpenter. The pay was very low, for the amount of responsibility he had. Walter was the head deacon at Hyde Park Baptist Church. He was highly respected as a layman leader of that church, and his wife Arminda played the church organ.

They took their young grand-daughters to church, and took excellent care of them, with the financial help that had been provided by their father Carl Jones, who was living in the San Bernardino area of California, in a sort of medical exile.

Carleen remembers that Walter (Grampy) had an expensive car, which he could not afford. He could not even afford to buy enough gas to drive the car to work, but he did drive it to church on Sundays. Carleen is certain that her father Carl had bought the car for Walter, to help him take care of two young grand-daughters.

Walter had a passion for fox-hunting with hounds, in the woods of Austin, on and around Mount Bonnell. He did not take the girls on these hunts, but he told them the exciting stories of the hunts. They would let the hounds loose from camp, wait for the telltale baying of the hounds that said they were chasing a fox, then Walter and his friends would grab their guns and chase after the hounds! They would usually find the hounds barking under a tree or at a foxhole, where the fox had climbed out of their reach. Soon the fox was in their bag.

Louis Ireland was an interesting neighbor across Avenue G, who operated an oil refinery in his backyard. He collected dirty oil from gas stations, cleaned it, and sold it as recycled oil. The Irelands later took Carleen to school in their car, because Walter had already left at dawn to walk to his job at the State School.

Ruth spent summers in Houston with her loving Uncle Roy Reece and Aunt Bertha. She enjoyed those summers greatly, and learned a lot from her uncle and aunt. Roy and Bertha had a ranch near Glenrose, Texas, with horses and cows, so they spent a lot of time there. At Glenrose, there is a famous river, the Paluxy River, with three different types of dinosaur tracks in the rock riverbed, and Carleen remembered exploring the river and seeing those tracks in the 1930’s and marveling at them, before they became public knowledge. As a teenager, she lived through a bad hurricane in Houston during the years of World War 2, when news was censored for national security, and hurricanes were not even predicted or named. They did not know the hurricane was coming, and it was a strong one, blowing water into the house through the window seams. Carleen remembers a strange calm in the middle of the storm, which they later learned was the “eye” of the hurricane. Then the wind and rain came again, from the opposite direction!

Roy and Bertha took Carleen to church on Sundays in Houston, and sometimes let Carleen pick the church that they would attend.

In her childhood, Carleen was taken on many interesting trips between Austin and Houston and Glenrose, when the road was all dirt, when creeks had to be forded and the car might get stuck, and nights were spent not in hotels, but in a farmer’s field under the stars, or being rained on! Meals were not often provided in restaurants, but under a shade tree, eating the food that you brought with you. With modern paved highways, the trip between Austin and Houston takes only hours, in comfortable cars with air conditioning. But back then in the 1930’s, it was an uncertain adventure that took days, subject to all the conditions of weather and nature, heat and cold, mud and dust... with no convenience stores or bathrooms along the way. Carleen loved telling the stories of those trips. In Houston, Carleen got to know some of Uncle Roy’s accounting clients, who were among the richest people in Houston. In particular, Ben Taub would have conversations with her, when Carleen answered the phone for her Uncle Roy. Ben Taub was a businessman who developed much of Houston, and built a great hospital that is named after him. Ben Taub had fought in World War 1 as a Captain, then returned to Houston to deal in real estate and development.

In Austin, her grandparents were steadfast members of Hyde Park Baptist Church, and Carleen grew up in that great church learning the teachings of our loving Lord and Savior. She took those teachings to heart, and became a model of love, concern and compassion for everyone around her. She also learned lessons by living through the Great Depression, like how to make every bit of money and food last as long as possible, and how to help your struggling neighbor who is worse off than you are. She passed those lessons on to her family for the rest of her life. She always contributed money to church and charities, and volunteered her time to help others who are in need. She went to other churches in poor areas of Austin, to help them with their efforts.

Carleen was deeply involved with church life, teaching Sunday School for many years, serving on pulpit committees, and cooking wonderful food for countless church suppers and picnics. She cooked her best food for her family, with familiar favorite dishes like seasoned okra, or Thanksgiving turkey and her special dressing, or tasty new dishes for something different. She had a missionary spirit, which led her to volunteer to work at Vacation Bible School for poor kids at other churches. She and her husband James made many dear friends at church, who remained lifelong friends. James was a deacon and played on the Hyde Park Church softball team, which resulted in many family trips to softball tournaments all over Texas. Carleen was a teacher at Hyde Park Baptist Church, then University Hills Baptist Church, then Highland Park Baptist Church, and finally Millwood Baptist Church, where she was on the Prayer Committee. The churches were a source of strength and comfort in her life, and she tried to pass that strength and comfort on to everyone she cared about.

In school, Carleen impressed her teachers. When she started fifth grade, she was selected to skip a grade and go to a new junior high school, jumping up to sixth grade. This imposed hardships upon her, such as losing her old friends, being subjected to a new teaching system, and finding a way to get to and from the new school, which was far away from home. This is when the Irelands across the street became very helpful, taking her to school in their car. In return, Carleen would watch the Ireland’s baby for a few hours, when needed. That baby ended up coming to Carleen’s nursing home as a fellow resident, and Carleen recognized her and visited her.

In school, Carleen made friends with a family of midgets, whose daughter was in the new school, who had acted in the movie “The Wizard Of Oz”. The earnings from their acting allowed them to buy a very small English car, which suited their small stature. They sometimes took Carleen home from school in this mini-car, which made Carleen the target of teasing from her other friends. She was happy to have the midget family as friends, but the other students made fun of her for befriending the midgets.

In high school, Carleen was selected to advance early from eleventh grade to twelfth grade, to a different school with different teachers, as an educational experiment with college-like classes. This again disrupted her life, but she did her best to cope with the changes in a positive manner. While in high school, she took her first job with a dentist, at Newman’s Dental Lab. Then in 1943, after graduating from high school, she moved to another job as a telephone switchboard operator. The chief operator, named Jackie McCloud, was spiteful and hateful, mistreating the operators under her, while having an affair with a well-known engineer in town, which everyone knew about. This disturbed Carleen so much, she just quit the telephone job, and found another job as a cashier at the Scarboroughs department store. This was the job she had when she got married.

In high school, a handsome young man named James Watson moved in next door on Avenue G in Austin, and courted Carleen, winning her heart. But it was during World War 2, and James enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was sent for training to Scott Airfield, Illinois, near St. Louis, Missouri. She traveled there on a train to marry him, thinking he was about to be transferred away for pilot training. But then the war ended in a great victory, and James was discharged from the Army. They got married, then searched for a used car to buy, but used cars for sale were scarce in those days. They bought an old wreck of a car to travel back to Austin, to start a new life together. The clutch of the car was broken, and James could not stop without killing the engine. He drove through stop signs, and was yelled at, sometimes by police officers, but he had to keep going. They took back roads and made it home with much adventure, but no serious mishaps.

Carleen was a loving mother and wife, with two sons Steve and Stuart, working hard to take care of her home and family. James did well in engineering and surveying, and bought a boat and a cabin on Lake Travis, which led to many fun weekends fishing and water-skiing. James later bought a ranch near Leander, so Carleen had two extra houses to take care of, which she did well.

But Carleen had a great interest and curiosity about the world, and loved to take trips to see other parts of the world, whether just the other side of town, or another state, or a country she had never been to. She took great pleasure in planning family trips and vacations, and always studied in advance to know the history of the places we were visiting. She wanted to understand something about the people who lived there, how and why they might be different, what they did that was noteworthy. On car trips, she always wanted to stop to read every historical marker by the side of the road. She wanted to know what people did there, to cause a historical sign to be put up. After the trips, she loved talking about the places we had visited and remembering all the things we had learned. She had an amazing memory, and could recite the smallest details that everyone else had forgotten. Up until her last days, she could talk happily about trips taken long ago to Canada, Mexico, Germany, and all over the United States. She could remember trips to visit friends, and the details of those visits, with all their warmth and emotions. She remembered the overbearing parking lot attendant in Germany, the violin player we saw in Wiesbaden who looked like her grandmother Arminda, she remembered the warm kindness of her Uncle Roy and Aunt Bertha in Houston, where she spent summers in their household.

Carleen became interested in sculpture, and took several sculpture classes at the famous Elizabet Ney museum in Austin. She made sculptured heads of some family members, such as husband James and son Stuart. She also made sculptures of models who were brought into the class, and the teacher complimented Carleen’s work, saying that it was very good. Carleen could have pursued this skill further, but she achieved a talent, satisfied herself of her capability, and then turned to other interests.

As they grew older, Carleen and James kept in touch with their dear close friends and family, visiting them and socializing with them, but watched them pass away one by one. Those friends and family preceded them to our heavenly home, and we know they are rejoicing now in spiritual reunion. It was difficult for James and Carleen to watch so many of their friends and family die before them, but that makes for a multitude of loving spirits to welcome them home!

Then James developed serious health problems, which weakened him, but he tried to carry on, supported by Carleen, who helped to analyze his health problems. He suffered for 14 months, with a persistent case of intestinal troubles, including diarrhea, with no help from doctors. For over a year prior to that, he suffered from internal bleeding and hiatal hernia surgery. The internal bleeding went undiscovered for a long time, and the resulting weakness depressed him greatly, especially because he did not know the reason for it. He tried to carry on bravely, until he fell from weakness off of a tractor shredder at his ranch, and broke his femur on June 1, 2013. While trying to recover from that, he stayed at his son Stephen’s house, cared for by Stephen and his wife Marcia. James passed away on the night of August 3, 2013.

After the passing of her husband James, Carleen carried on, living alone in their house, with much help from her two sons, Stephen and Stuart, for several years until she became so weak she needed the help of a nursing home. In the nursing home, Carleen now known as Ruth, made an impression on the staff members as being very knowledgeable and informed, sharing her self-education and her memories of past and current events, also sharing her faith in God. She constantly read newspapers, magazines and books. She read so much, it was difficult for her sons to supply her with new things to read!

Although much weakened, she did everything she could to take care of herself, and retain some independence. And she always tried to share her faith in God and her testimonies with everyone. She also was very generous with money towards her family, friends, and tithing to many Christian and charitable organizations.

Carleen’s heart and lung problems got progressively worse. Her lower legs and feet became very swollen and painful. Amazingly, at age 94, she survived Covid 19 and a difficult quarantine in the nursing home. The day after Christmas of 2022, Carleen suffered from a strong staph infection, that started in her left leg and spread fast through her body, causing severe sepsis. After a 12-day stay in the hospital, very strong antibiotics cured the infection, but left Carleen very weak. She could not control her throat muscles enough to eat solid food or drink plain water. It was very difficult for her to even talk. She was returned to the nursing home, where it was discovered that she had caught Covid 19 again, this time from the hospital. She passed away in her sleep in the nursing home on January 7, 2023 at the age of 96 years.

Carleen is survived by her two sons, Stephen and Stuart, their wives Marcia and Penny, and four grandchildren, Jordan, Nicholas, Michael and Pamela. Also a nephew James, his wife Lupita and their son John. Also a great-grandchild Levi.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.cookwaldenfuneralhome.com for the Watson family.