Gary Watkins

Gary Lynn Watkins (December 12, 1946 – August 8, 2004) was a lawyer and Democratic politician from Odessa in Ector County in West Texas. From 1987 to 1993, Watkins held the District 75 seat, since largely reconfigured into District 81, in the Texas House of Representatives.^[1]

Background

Watkins was the only child of Leonard Lamar "Toots" Watkins (c. 1922-1997), an oil company mechanic,^[2] and the former Leona Elizabeth Brosh (c 1923-2011), a beautician.^[3] He was born in the oil production center of Crane in Crane County to the south of Odessa.^[4] Reared in Odessa, he graduated in 1965 from Permian High School in Odessa.^[5] He received his bachelor's degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin; in 1973, he obtained his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.^[6]

Political life

On May 1, 1976, Watkins ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the Texas House. In 1977, while an alternative municipal judge, Watkins was appointed Ector county judge, a position to which he was subsequently elected. The outgoing county judge, Joseph "Joe" Connally, resigned to accept the newly created 244th state District Court position under appointment from Governor Dolph Briscoe.^[6] Watkins would succeed Connally not only as county judge but twenty-two years later as state court judge.

Six years after his tenure as county judge ended, Watkins was elected to three legislative terms.^[4] In 1992, he supported Arkansas' Bill Clinton for U.S. President^[7] but did not seek a fourth term in the legislature. In the general election that year, Odessa, placed in the reconfigured District 81, elected the Republican businessman George E. "Buddy" West over another Democratic candidate, Betsy Ann Triplett-Hurt. District 81 had previously been centered in Wichita County and was represented by the Democrat John Hirschi.^[8]

As a representative, Watkins worked with State Senator John T. Montford of Lubbock to obtain four-year status for the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. For a time he was the chairman of the House Higher Education Committee.^[9] For his government service he received the Heritage of Odessa Foundation Award. Buddy West continued Watkins' active efforts to promote the UTPB, having pushed for the establishment of the Presidential Museum and Leadership Library on the campus.^[10] West was unseated in the Republican primary shortly before his death in 2008 by another Republican, Tryon D. Lewis, who as the 161st District Court judge had been one of Watkins' judicial colleagues.

In 1996, Watkins polled nearly 13 percent of the vote in a special election for the District 28 seat in the Texas Senate, vacated by John Montford, but the seat went to the Republican, Robert L. Duncan of Lubbock,^[11] who still holds the post.

In 1998, Watkins was elected to the 244th District Court, a judicial position based in Odessa. He defeated the Republican John William Cliff (born 1949) of Odessa, 11,894 votes (57.1 percent) to 8,927 (42.9 percent).^[12] He was reelected judge without opposition in 2002.

Death

Watkins died of leukemia^[5] in Alliance Hospital in Odessa at the age of fifty-seven. From his marriage to his surviving wife, the former Hope Coley (born 1949), were born three sons, R. Trent Watkins, Travis Watkins, and Grant Watkins, and two daughters, Heather Watkins and Summer Roberson.^[4] Services were held at his home church, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Odessa. He is interred at Sunset Memorial Gardens.^[13] There is a cenotaph in his honor in section 2 of Monument Hill at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.^[14]

References