William Watkins

Bill Watkins lost a one year fight with pancreatic cancer on March 19, 2019. His family was with him constantly and will greatly miss his gentle, loving, kind friendship. He always had a joke and a helping hand for his friends, patients, and loved ones. Bill was born on May 7, 1937, to George and Edna Watkins in Lubbock, Texas. He was a graduate of Pershing Junior High School, Lamar High School, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas Dental Branch, where he met and married Elena Densford, his best friend and love of his life. He served as a dentist in the US Navy in Washington, DC, and the Holy Loch, Scotland, aboard the USS Hunley, a submarine tender. After his naval service, Bill and Elena started their dental practice in Houston on West Orem Drive, where they happily served for 51 years. They lived in the same house on Maple Street in Bellaire for nearly 50 years, where they raised their beautiful children, Andy and Eron, served the community, played tennis, softball, and made lifelong friends. Bill was also an avid landscaper, liking nothing more than designing flower beds, planting trees, and enjoying his beautiful yard with its lush tropical ambience. Twice the Bellaire Home Tour featured his home and gardens. Bill and Elena loved to travel, enjoying people and places in every continent except Antarctica, which they came close to when they sailed Cape Horn. Bill intended to explore every one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World, but never made it to the Taj Mahal. His was a full, rich life that just kept getting better when his children married into wonderful families and provided him with beautiful grandchildren. Dr. Andrew William and Heather Haft Watkins, parents of Evan Andrew and Kelly Rose, and Eron Elena Watkins Grant and Dr. Mark Cullen Grant, parents of Kasidy Cora and Cullen William have all made him very proud. After retirement, he and Elena moved to Cypress, Texas to The Heritage in Towne Lake, a wonderful community of loving caring people, where he happily landscaped his yard on the lake. He loved playing horseshoes, table shuffleboard, golf, going to lunch and breakfast with his friends, and taking family and friends out in his boat. BIll was not ready to leave this life, but knew he would be welcomed in heaven by God, his parents, his parents-in-law, and brother-in-law, among other relatives and friends who preceded him in death. Honored to serve as pallbearers will be Dr. Andrew Watkins, Evan Watkins, Dr. Mark Grant, Cullen Grant, Maj. George Watkins (ret.), Col. Charles Densford (ret.), Maj. Gen. Dan Densford (ret.), S. Sgt. Bucky Densford (ret.), Richard Grant, Rody Grant, and Ronald Haft. Honorary pallbearers are so many close and dear friends who know they are brothers of his, too. Bill loved flowers, but he would also love to know that someday there might be a cure for this dreadful disease that took his life too early, so our family selected Pancreatic Cancer Action Network as a worthy organization that not only works for a cure, but counsels patients. To make a donation in Bill’s name, please visit pancan.org. A funeral service honoring the life of Bill Watkins will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, March 22, 2019 at Trinity Downtown Lutheran Church, 800 Houston Avenue in Houston, Texas.