WATKINS, Shirley M.

Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Wednesday, January 5, 2005, p. B11 Shirley M. Watkins, twenty-year Sun Lakes resident, passed away December 31, after being stricken with a stroke four days earlier. Mrs. Watkins was born in Milwaukee on April 30, 1927 and reared in Wisconsin before coming to Arizona with her beloved twin sister and long-time Tucson resident Clarice Mounce in 1947. The following year, Mrs. Watkins married John Boyce Watkins, Jr. of Salome, who was then a student at the University of Arizona. She is survived by three children: J. Boyce Watkins, III, Stephen A. Watkins, Tracie Watkins Hunt, and her grandson, Nicholas O. Watkins. A fourth child, her beloved son Terry L. Watkins, a twin to his sister Tracie, passed away in 1998. Also surviving are her daughter-in-law Ritsu O. Watkins and son-in-law Donal Hunt. A homemaker, Mrs. Watkins will be remembered for her style and taste, a spirited sense of humor, compassion and generosity, love of animals, affliction for shopping and lattes, enthusiasm for golf and the Arizona climate, her unapologetic commitment to Liberal and Democratic politics, and her deep love and devotion toward her children. She will be sorely missed by all of her family and friends. No service or memorial is planned and the family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the American Society of Diabetes or to relief agencies supporting victims of the recent great Indian Ocean tsunami. Arrangements entrusted to Valley of the Sun Mortuary, 480-895-9232.