http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=geraldine-watson&pid=156955275
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjnKwSmUEoM
Dear Everyone:
It’s a long story, but I wanted to write a quick note today to let you know about the passing of someone very dear to me: Geraldine Watson. I hope that this little story will illustrate that you never know what kind of an impact you might have on somebody, and we sometimes don’t realize what an impact someone has had on us until too late.
The worst part is that today I found out that she died only in April—someone I remembered fondly for so many years. She was my Sunday school teacher many years ago back in the small town of Lumberton, Texas where I grew up as a young child in the Big Thicket of East Texas. I have always remembered her as a person who had a powerful impact on my life at a formidable age. I remember being a scared young kid, going to church for the first time in my life, and when I sat down at that Sunday school table, I knew I was “at home” with “Ms. Watson.” She was amazing. She opened my eyes and my heart. She took us youngsters on amazing trips through the Big Thicket that she knew like the back of her hand. She took us to the Houston Zoo, which is a long drive from Lumberton. I remember seeing all kinds of birds for the first time in my life, meaning exotic birds like Pink Pelicans. Of course, I was already accustomed to seeing a variety of birds from my life in the Thicket, but to be brought on these trips and given special attention and guidance meant all the world to a young girl who had been basically left to run the woods while Mama and Daddy worked the land. Ms. Watson taught me many things about life and how to live. I wish I could thank her, even get to know her now as an adult, but it is too late. I don’t know why I didn’t have the gumption to ever try to find her until now. I was going to try to tie this up neatly, but I can’t think, right now of what to say. All I can say is I will always love her and feel indebted to her for her giving nature and the intelligence that she brought to spirituality, which shaped and molded my life from the beginning. I had no idea that she was also famous:
“Geraldine's activism and involvement with a large number of environmental causes led her to become a critical part of the effort to establish the Big Thicket national Preserve. She emerged a renowned botanist, as her studies became background for legions of authors, journalists and historians who wrote about the area and the State of Texas. She authored books about the wild flowers and plants of Texas as well as contributing extensively to other works by other botanists. Her books, Big Thicket Plant Ecology is now in it's third edition and Reflections on The Neches is peaceful reading and an actual escape from the modern world she despised.
She was also a talented artist and her work depicts the birds and flowers of her botanical preserve she and her family established in 1974 and includes a series called "The Good ol' Days", scenes of local folk, barn dances, juke joints, plowin', fishin', pea pickin' and the places she and her family used to camp, picnic and swim.”
Y’all come!