Karen E Watson

GRANBURY — Karen E. Watson, age 67, passed away in her home in Pecan Plantation on November 20, 2015.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, November 28, 2015 at the Pecan Plantation Club House.
In lieu of flowers, please give a donation to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Karen’s name.

Karen was born on February 8, 1948 in Van Nuys, California to Arthur and Dorothy Johnson. She was the second child and her brother Andy was four years old when she arrived. She lived in Victor Heights for about three years, then the family relocated to Reno, Nevada. Karen’s father had been a Colonel in the Army during the Second World War and accepted the surrender of the Japanese army in China as he spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese. He was given one of the ceremonial surrender swords which he gave to Karen. In 1952 when the Korean War began, he was recalled to military service and the family lived for a few months at Ft. Hood, TX. When Arthur went off to Korea, the family returned to Reno .

Karen’s father often read her poems and stories. Her favorite was the Edward Lear poem, “The Owl and the Pussy Cat” which she could recite verbatim. Her father could also play the piano by ear and she loved to ask him to play songs for her. One of her favorites was Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”.

Karen’s mother Dorothy gave her an appreciation for the Arts. The family would frequently take trips to San Francisco for long weekends to go to theatres, parks, and museums. They also instilled in her the travel bug by taking her to Hawaii for Christmas when she was in the 9th grade.

Andy was the typical big brother who looked out for his little sister. As young children, Karen and Andy shared a bedroom which Andy had the top bunk and Karen had the bottom. They had a shared a red toy chest, but Andy would often try to hide his toys on the top bed. It was no use, as Karen considered the bunk beds as her jungle gym and had no trouble finding the toy she wanted to play with. Karen was an athletic child and often went off to play baseball with her big brother and the boys. When the teams were decided, Karen was usually the first one chosen. One day, Andy, about age 8, was helping their mom dry the dishes when he asked about the existence of Santa. Dorothy explained that it was the spirit of Christmas that was important, but Andy was such a protective brother that he replied, “We can’t tell Karen that there is no Santa Claus, she’s still too young.”
Andy often took Karen to the Saturday morning children’s matinee movie at the Tower theater. Four Model Dairy milk bottle caps got you in to the movies and also got you a ticket for a drawing for a prize. One Saturday Karen won a transistor radio, which for years was a prized possession.
The family had a mutt dog or what some would say a Heinz 57 dog named Inky. When Karen was nine years old, she drew a picture of Inky and her puppies to enter in a school contest. As a result of her art work she won 4 tickets to the movies for her family to enjoy.
Many summers the family traveled to Chicago to visit Karen’s grandparents. Inky would go on these trips with them, as did the pet parakeet. The parakeet was placed in between Karen and Andy and they were entertained for hours as the parakeet tried to maintain its balance on its perch as they went around corners. The trips were long and at break stops, Inky would have to be retrieved as she loved to chase the wildlife. While visiting grandparents, Karen would venture out to Lake Michigan, The Art Institute, Chicago Zoo, and the Field Museum.
Karen always had a love for animals. She and Andy even had a dedicated pond in the backyard that they called “the frog farm”. She adopted a stray black cat named Leroy, but was not permitted in the house. Andy built an outdoor shelter for Leroy, but Karen would still sneak Leroy in the house. Several months later when Leroy had kittens, she renamed the cat “Leroyce”. Karen also enjoyed school field trips to Welch’s Dairy Farm where the students were allowed to feed old bread to the dairy cows. Even though the cows were very big, they gently took the bread from their hands. Karen regarded this as one of her fondest childhood memories.
Karen did her K-12th grade schooling in Reno, Nevada. She attended Elementary school at Mary S. Dotten and Elm Crest, Junior High School at Central, and graduated from Reno High School. At Reno High School, she was a member of the Ski Club, Art Society, the French Club, Girl’s Rifle Team, Honor Society, and the Huskiettes – the girl’s high school drill team.
Her first car was the family’s 1950’s VW beetle. According to her best friend, Susie Martinez, this was her touring car. By touring, she meant off-road. They took several trips into the mountains together and Karen always skillfully maneuvered the difficult terrain and always returned them home safely. When not off-roading, they would drive to Lake Tahoe, where they loved to go swimming and sun bathe on the beach.
Karen was also an avid skier, starting in junior high school. She and her girlfriends would often head off for a few days of skiing. Their favorite destinations included Sun Valley, Idaho, Park City, Utah, and the Sierra Nevadas.

Karen attended college at the University of Nevada Reno from 1966-1971. She was the first person to graduate from UNR with a B.S. in Botany. This degree served her well in her career as a real estate agent. During her last year of college, giving into her desire to travel and see the world, she spent three months exploring most of the European continent on a shoestring budget.

She was always fascinated with airplanes and in the 1970’s, she got her pilot’s license to fly small aircraft. In 1980, she and a close friend, Patty McCulloch, flew to England on the Concorde, which she considered one of her greatest life experiences. Before take-off, she sat in the cockpit of the airplane and had tea with one of the pilots and talked about her love of flying. They spent three weeks going to the theatre in London, visiting Cornwall, and traveling to the Lake District in Scotland. She enjoyed a similar experience with her friend Vernie Mast in 1982. They were escorted by one of Vernie’s friends on a one month whirlwind tour of 11 countries.

Karen developed a love of golf at a young age, and particularly enjoyed the ambiance of attending a PGA tour event; her favorite was the Celebrity Pro-Am AT&T at Pebble Beach. She and her friends would set up a picnic consisting of champagne, pate, and other exquisite snacks behind the 8th green. Many of the celebrity amateur players would say, “I would rather be sitting with you and enjoying your picnic, rather than playing in this tournament.” One such player was Steve Young, who sat down and ate snacks, but passed on the champagne.
Karen’s father passed away in 1988. Karen and her mom traveled a lot together after his passing. They went to England, Hawaii, a trip down the St. Lawrence Seaway, and several trips to Paris. Their last trip to Paris was in 1995 for the 50th year celebration of the Liberation of Paris in WWII.

In 1994, my father, David was recently divorced and moved back to his hometown Reno, NV. On August 25, 1995, Dave’s cousin and his wife, playing matchmaker, invited Dave and Karen separately over to a dinner party at his house knowing Dave and Karen knew each other in high school. This was the first time they had seen each other since high school and felt an instant connection. They had a lot in common and began to date, and within a few weeks became inseparable. Karen supported Dave and helped him revive his medical career, while managing her very successful real estate business. Dave returned to work as a physician doing Emergency Medicine in various hospitals in Northern Nevada. In late 1996, he was offered a fellowship in anesthesiology at UCLA . After completing that, he was offered a job at the Reno VA Hospital as an anesthesiologist.

Karen and Dave bought their first home in 1998. Honey, a 10 year old Tawny Stripped Abyssinian Cat and another adopted stray, Teddy the gray fur ball, came along with them. Honey was the favorite and was always entertaining them. She had a stuffed dog that she would retrieve. She would make feral cat sound as she brought the dog into the bedroom, jump up on the bed and place it between Dave and Karen. Unless Honey got praise, she would take the dog off the bed and repeat the process. She brought many years of happiness and joy until 2006 when she passed away at 22 years of age.

In the fall of 1997, Karen and Dave took a three week vacation and went to Paris. They saw the sights and went to a golf tournament, the Trophy Lancôme just outside of Paris. This became an annual event for the next seven years, excluding 2001 due to 9/11. They enjoyed mixing with the European golfers and had the opportunity to speak with Ian Woosman, Thomas Levet, Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington, Retief Goosen, and many other players. The Lancôme Trophy was dropped after the 2003 tournament as Lancôme refused to sponsor a women’s golf tournament as well. However, Dave and Karen returned to Paris ten more times mixing with the crowds, they were always made welcome in Paris and enjoyed the Parisian lifestyle. Their two favorite cafes were The Marmit, which served a working man’s dish called cassoulet, and The Two Theatres, which had an exquisite five course dinner.

In 1999, Karen’s good friend, Bobbi Reed, called and asked if she and Dave would like to be her guest and come to the Ryder Cup at the Brookline Country Club in Boston. Of course she accepted and they were on their way. The Ryder Cup did not go well for the Americans for the first two days and European spectators said there was no use showing up for Sunday’s matches. However, on Sunday, the American team made a miraculous comeback and Karen and Dave were standing at the 17th green, witnessing Justin Leonard sink a 45 foot birdie putt to clench the cup for the American side. This was also one of Karen’s favorite memories.

Karen also loved baseball and was a big Oakland A’s fan. She and Dave would often take a three day weekend and travel to Oakland to watch a three game weekend series. While the A’s didn’t win a World Series, they were fun to watch and it was always a great getaway. Karen and Dave were also supporters of the UNR baseball team. Every year the Italian League sponsored a fundraiser for the team and had a guest speaker and auctioned sports memorabilia. One year the guest speaker was Don Larsen, the only pitcher who has pitched a perfect game in the history of the World Series. There was a silent auction for a piece of memorabilia to be created with Mr. Larsen. Karen and David had the winning bid. They took a NY Yankees jersey which Don Larsen signed and dated 10-08-1956, the date of the perfect game. It was also signed by Yogi Berra who was the catcher of the perfect game. The mounting contains a picture of Don Larsen, Karen, and Dave. This was a unique memory and memento for Karen and Dave.

Karen really enjoyed the rock and roll of the 70s and 80s. She and Dave were able to attend several concerts together including The Moody Blues, Lionel Richie, Journey, Foreigner, Steve Miller Band, The Eagles, Boston, George Benson, Dan Fogelberg, The Temptations, The Guess Who, Three Dog Night, George Thorogood, KC and the Sunshine Band, Alan Parsons Project, and many more. The evenings out were always enjoyable events that Karen looked forward to.

In 1999, Dave was offered a job as the anesthesiologist at Churchill Community Hospital, 60 miles from Reno. For the next 10 years, Karen and Dave maintained two homes as Dave was on-call every third night. Many nights, Karen would drive to Fallon to be with Dave.
In 2004, Dave won a drawing for free admission to the European Anesthesia Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. This gave Karen and Dave the opportunity to travel to the South of Portugal to an area called the Algarve, which has some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. They stayed at little, quaint hotels along the coast and enjoyed the local cuisine. Before returning home, they took a side trip to the Island of Madeira in the middle of the Atlantic. Karen often reminisced about this trip.
Karen loved to travel and enjoyed experiencing different cultures. With Dave by her side, they travelled to England, the Baltic countries, St. Petersburg, the Mediterranean, Central Europe, including 15 trips to Paris, South America, Hawaii and Ixtapa, Mexico which was their annual winter get away destination.

Karen grew very fond of Dave’s grandchildren and when each one was born, she sent them a special t-shirt with their birthday, birth weight, and name. She enjoyed going to the homes of Dave’s children to see the grandkids. She considered Dave’s children as her own. She was so pleased when one of her granddaughters, Gracee, asked if she could call her “Gramma Karen”. She had a special place in her heart for all the grandchildren and made sure they were acknowledged on their birthdays and on Christmas.

By the end of 2007, the legal issues from Dave’s 1994 divorce were all cleared up. Karen and Dave were finally able to make their plans to be married. On November 25th, 2008, they were married by a long time friend, James Hardesty. He was, at the time, the Chief Justice of the Nevada State Supreme Court and the marriage was performed in his chambers.

In 2009, after the economy had its downturn, Churchill Community Hospital gave Dave his pink slip. Karen reassured Dave that something good would come out of this and they labeled the job search folder “The Silver Lining”. It took Dave three months to secure a new job which was in Stephenville, Texas. As they explored the area to which they were relocating, they found Pecan Plantation, which Karen immediately fell in love with. They bought a home and shortly thereafter sold their home in Reno, realizing this is where they wanted to live. Karen’s mother made three trips to visit them, and at Thanksgiving dinner 2010 announced that she wanted to move to Pecan to be close to Karen and Dave. Karen said, “Mom, we need to find a place for you to live.” Dorothy replied, “No, I want to buy your house and you two can build the house of your dreams.” Their dream house was completed in July of 2011, and Dorothy, at age 91, relocated to Pecan Plantation.
In 2012, Karen got to take an item off of her bucket list. She had always wanted to see Iguazu Falls in Argentina. They traveled to Buenos Aries and spent several days sightseeing. They took three days to travel to the falls which were expansive and breathtaking, stretching at least three miles. Later that year, they flew to Barcelona and took a repositioning cruise back across the Atlantic. The ten days at sea were a special time as Karen had Dave all to herself. They often fondly talked about being able to sleep in, watch onboard movies in the theatre, and enjoy the five star dining on the ship at their leisure.

In November 2014, Karen and Dave got a special invitation from Fossil Rim Wildlife Center to participate in a fossil dig and a private tour. They spent two hours in the fossil pit and were allowed to take a few fossils each. The private wildlife tour was especially enjoyable, and Karen was impressed by how gently the bull giraffe licked the food away from her hand.

Alaska was one of Karen’s favorite places on Earth. She and Dave had the opportunity to take four such cruises. She particularly enjoyed the wildlife and the glaciers. Her favorite attraction was in Ketchikan. It was the Deadliest Catch Tour. It allows you to experience the crabbers pulling up their traps and showing the variety of sea creatures that they caught. They even allowed you to hold the live crabs and shrimp before returning them to the sea.

Dave continued to work in Stephenville until his retirement on August 7th, 2015. Karen was always by his side and supported him in his job. In 2014, Dave received an offer to work as a surveyor doing hospital accreditation for The Joint Commission. Karen was thrilled for him, knowing he wasn’t totally retiring from medicine, but would only be gone one week a month.
Though the last 18 months of Karen’s time on Earth were difficult for her due to health reasons, she was always optimistic and made plans for the future. She was able to maintain her wit and love of life, and express her deep love for Dave. Karen never lost sight that life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

She is survived by her mother Dorothy E. Johnson, Pecan Plantation, her brother, Art Johnson, Hawthorne, NV, her husband, Dr. David W. Watson, stepson, Scott Watson, his wife, Nancy and their girls, Rory and Dani, stepson, Kendall Watson, his wife, Carla, and their son, Ian, stepdaughter, Lindsey Lee and her husband, John, and their girls Elly and Gracee, and stepson, Justin Watson. The grandchildren will miss their “Gramma Karen”.