Carolyn Kirk Watson - artist, beloved wife, and mother of three - passed peacefully on Nov. 2, 2025 at the Army Residence Community in San Antonio, Texas. "I had a good life," she said in her final days. She was nearly 91 years old.
Born in Needles, Calif., to railroad special officer William D. Kirk and former court clerk Erma J. White on Dec. 30, 1934, Carolyn grew up in San Bernardino, Calif. She and her older sister and only sibling, Earleen, spent hours playing and exploring outdoors. At five, she contracted the polio virus in 1940, prior to a vaccine. The infection permanently damaged one leg, requiring a brace off and on for the rest of her life. She also had post-polio syndrome about 50 years later.
She found her husband for life, Col. John Thomas Watson, at 19 during a party when "our eyes met across the room." She was six feet tall, and he was six foot five. They married shortly after in 1954 and left for Alaska, the first of many assignments during John's 25-year career as a pilot and officer in the U.S. Air Force. Together, they shared their love of travel and the outdoors with their three daughters: Catherine, Karen, and Connie. After retiring from the military, they continued to live in Clear Lake, Texas, where John worked in the space industry for 13 years until he retired.
Carolyn contributed in many ways to the various communities where her family lived, including holding leadership positions in various service organizations, such as the Officers' Wives Club in Mountain Home, Idaho, and Rotary Women's Club, in Clear Lake, Texas. In their retirement community of Medina, Texas, she and John helped raise funds and support for the creation and operation of a community library, with a genealogy specialty. For many years, Carolyn also was active in polio awareness and fund-raising to eliminate polio globally.
Art was among Carolyn's passions. She painted, drew, and sketched in her teens and throughout her adult life. She mounted exhibitions and sold her paintings, mostly of landscapes that she loved, including her award-winning shrimp boats of Kemah, Texas. She stopped when Parkinson's/Lewy Body caused debilitating hand tremors in her mid 80s but continued to appreciate art wherever she could find it.
Carolyn and John eventually moved to Blue Skies West in San Antonio, where John passed away in 2008 due to complications caused by exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Carolyn moved to the ARC's 24-hour skilled nursing facility in 2023.
She is survived by her daughters: Catherine Watson Morgan (Charlotte, North Carolina), Karen Marie Watson (Sykesville, Maryland), and Connie Watson Bowers (Whidbey Island, Washington); four grandsons, Chris and Alex Bowers, and John and Adam Morgan; and two great grandsons, Bowen and Grayson Morgan. She was preceded in death by her sister, Earleen Helm.
A private service organized by Porter Loring Mortuary North will be held at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, where Carolyn will join her husband.
