Edward "Eddie" J. Watt

Funeral services for Edward J. “Eddie” Watt will be held on Friday, August 9th, 2019 at 9:00 AM at Reed-Culver Chapel with Pastor Clifton Loman of First Lutheran and Pastor David Wiens of Inola Eden Mennonite Church officiating. His family will receive visitors Thursday, August 8th, 2019 from noon until 6:00 PM at Reed-Culver Chapel. He will be laid to rest with military honors at Ft. Gibson National Cemetery in Ft. Gibson, OK. Online condolences for his family may be left at www.reedculver.com.

Pallbearers for Eddie include Mark Dzamba, Melodye Fann-Dzamba, Nicholas Fann, Christopher Watt, Carson Watt, Rex Walgren, Melodye Fann and Rex Fann. His honorary pallbearers include Kevin Stilwell, Daysha Ross, Jon Carter, Phillip Logan, David Wiens, Kristen Roy, Jason Gann, Herman Augerhole, Robert Wilson, Jim Rolland, Paul Thomas, Jim Sutherland, and Dr. Dave Gahn.

Edward J. Watt, or Eddie to his friends and family, was born on Saturday, May 17th, 1924, the son of Charles Edward and Mary Ann (Thomas) Watt. Times were hard and stayed that way most of Eddie’s life. His mother passed when he was 2 years old. His father had to swim across the Republican River to keep from being taken from his dad. From there they would spend years going from Colorado to Kansas and Nebraska, working the farms and ranches for other owners, sleeping in grain bins and hay stacks to keep warm in winter. He graduated from Benkelman High School and at 17, was drafted into the US Army to fight in WWII. He was military police and served in reconnaissance for the Marauders and various other organizations in the China- Burma-India theatre of War. He was assigned to Vinegar Joe Stilwell, Frank Merrill, and had the privilege of guarding Lord Louis Mountbatten to Russia. He was shot in the back and tended to by Dr. Gordon Seagrave, returning to the front. His father died while he was overseas, and he came home after the war, leaving a ship in New York, with no family and no friends. He started his career in law enforcement in the borough of Queens, but decided it was a bit more than he was wanting in his future. He returned to Nebraska, entered the Nebraska Highway Patrol School and began again. He met and married a raven haired nurse at Morehouse Hospital in Benkelman, and after a short engagement, Vaulene Hubbard married him at 6:00 AM at the family farm in McDonald, KS, as he had to testify in court in Lincoln. Together they shared 70 years of love, laughter, hardships and always with each others love. There were two children born in this marriage, Charles Edward in 1950 and Melodye Anne in 1960. When he wasn’t working, which was seldom, Eddie liked to assist with the local dirt track racing, attended every high school sporting event, worked constantly in his yard, kept the cleanest car in town, was a fifty year member of the Masonic Justice Lodge #180, the First Lutheran Church of Benkelman, the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign War. He was quick to volunteer whenever there was a smoker and a cook was needed, and anytime someone needed the Salvation Army’s help, he was there too. He was the embodiment of everything that made this country a wonderful place to grow up, he was honest and forthright, kind, decent, a friend at all times and gave more than he ever asked in return. His faith in God, his wife Vaulene and his family was unshakeable. When his son Charlie passed in 1993, he and Vaulene relocated to Park Hill, OK, to be closer to their daughters family. Here he worked with the Cookson Senior Citizens, made cakes for Feed My Sheep, helped with church functions at the Lutheran and St. Brigid Catholic Church and loved talking to everyone he met, especially his many friends at the Muskogee VA. The Lord called this wonderful man home from his labors on Friday, August 2nd, 2019 in Muskogee at the age of 95 years. We thank God for the blessing we had in Dad, we will never forget him.

He is preceded in death by his mother, father, son Charlie Watt, granddaughter, Katie Watt-Bradbury, a half sister, Bernice Robbins and a half brother, Orville Robbins, and his In-Laws, Chas and Katie (Brumm) Hubbard.

Eddie will be dearly missed by his wife of 70 years, Vaulene Watt of Park Hill, OK, his daughter, Melodye Fann and husband Rex of Park Hill, OK, his daughter in law and her husband, Kathy Watt-Walgren and Rex of Wauneta, NE. He lives on in his adored grandchildren, Christopher Watt of Benkelman, NE, Nicholas Fann and wife Jenny of Burleson, TX, Melodye Fann-Dzamba and husband Mark of Leander, TX, Katie Bradbury’s husband Clint Bradbury of Winfield, KS, and Carson Watt and wife Jenna of Kearney, NE. He leaves his great grandchildren, Michaela Fann of Park Hill, OK, Katie Fann of Burleson, TX, Sebby Fann of Burleson, TX, Isabella Dzamba of Leander, TX, Braxton Bradbury of Winfield, KS, Libby Watt of Kearney, NE, and Kenzie Watt of Kearney, NE, as well as many cousins and a host of friends and loved ones too numerous to ever mention.