Winnie Opal Watkins

WINNIE OPAL WATKINS Funeral services for longtime Dove Creek resident, Winnie Opal Watkins will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22 at the Ertel Memorial Chapel. Pastor Jeff Foster will be officiating. Interment will follow at the Dove Creek Cemetery. A visitation has been scheduled for Monday, November 21 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Ertel Chapel. Winnie Opal Watkins was born at Alma, Okla. on March 11, 1914 to Silas and Catherine (Monden) Wheat. She was the second of five children born to this union. On February 13, 1931, Opal married Lee Polf and brought into the world three children, L.G., Barbara Lee, and Harold Dean. During the 1940’s Opal worked as a housekeeper and waitress. She also ran a restaurant and Laundromat for a time in Turpin, Okla. While waitressing, she met Felton Watkins in Liberal, Kans. Opal and Felton were later married in Clayton, N.M. on December 6, 1954. Together they formed a bond that would last for 50 years. During the first part of their lives together Opal and Felton moved to Mountain Home, Ida. and worked there for awhile and then during the late 1950’s they moved to Monument Valley, Utah where Felton worked as a tour guide for one tourist season. The couple then returned to the log home on Felton’s family farm on Squaw Point, southwest of Dove Creek where they farmed bean and wheat crops until their retirement. Opal loved the farm life. She worked in the fields with her husband and his family hoeing beans and shocking them during the harvest. Opal always had a yard full of beautiful flowers. She was especially proud of her large bed of big red tulips that in some years would blossom through a blanket of snow that still remained on the ground in early spring. She liked to feed the humming birds and always had homemade nectar on hand for them. Felton and Opal would raise a garden and Opal always had her cellar chock full of her home canned fruits and vegetables. She liked to take walks down the country roads at the farm and often rode her bicycle. Hunting arrowheads was a favorite pastime of Opals. She also liked crocheting and crafting and made many beautiful afgahns and craft items to share with family and friends. She liked planning family gatherings and enjoyed entertaining folks in her home. Opal loved to play dominoes and cards. She was an avid card player and her most favorite card game was called Pitch. Many nights on the farm were filled with games of Pitch and it was usually Opal who would say, “Let’s play some Pitch.” Opal was a good housekeeper. She kept the log home on the farm very clean. She was a member of a home demonstration club in Dove Creek and at different times would invite area ladies to her home to demonstrate how to do a craft or other homemaker’s projects. Opal had a lot of humorous sayings. If asked if she was ready to go somewhere she would say “I’m as ready as ready’s calf.” Her grandkids recall that once she told them something and when their reply was “what for?” she said, “cat fir, to make a pair of kitten britches, you want a pair?” If asked how she was feeling she might reply “with my fingers”. If passed by a speeding motorist while she was driving she would say “that guy’s in a hurry, if I was in a hurry, I’d left sooner.” Sometimes when you asked her if she wanted to go somewhere or do something her reply was “I’d just as soon to as eat a bug”. Once upon seeing a bicyclist on the road while they were driving she said “there’s a guy working his feet to give his backside a ride.” If someone was interrupting her view of something she would say “you make a better door, than you do a window”, and if something tasted really good it would “make you slap your pappy down.” In the summer of 1993 Opal and Felton sold the farm and moved to Cortez for the convenience of being closer to their doctors and such. They spent 7 years at their home in Cortez before moving into the Vista Mesa Assisted Living Center in the summer of 2000. Here Opal and Felton would spend the rest of their time together until Felton’s passing on March 29, 2005. Opal moved into the Vista Grande Nursing Home in October 2005 and this is where she spent the last few weeks of her life, passing away at the age of 91. Left to mourn Opal’s passing are her daughter, Barbara Lee Citak and husband, Jack; her son, Harold Dean Polf all of Las Vegas, Nev.; her sister, Estelle Gilbreth of Sundown, Tex.; nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and three great great-grandchildren; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Preceding Opal in death were her husband, Felton Watkins; her parents, Silas and Catherine Wheat; her son, L.G. Polf; and three siblings, Perry and Johnny Wheat and Beadie McBee. Her step-mother, step-brother and sister; and half sister, Iva Hayward also preceded her in death.