Louise M Watson

Louise M. Watson, 86 Kearney resident Louise M. Watson, 86, of Kearney, died Sunday, May 18, 2014 in Ord, NE. Funeral Services will be held 10:30 A.M. Thursday, May 22nd at the First Presbyterian Church in Kearney with the Rev. Dr. Stephen Price-Gibson officiating. Burial will follow at the Presbyterian Cemetery in Campbell, NE. Visitation will be 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home and one hour prior to the service at the church. Memorials are suggested to the church. Condolences or personal reflections may be submitted at www.orsfh.com. O'Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Louise May (Cook) Watson was born in Kearney, Nebraska on November 5, 1927. She was the daughter of Allen Cook and Marguerite Louise (George) Cook. The family moved to Wayne, Nebraska in 1936, and to Chino, California in 1939, where Louise graduated from High School in 1945. After graduation, she enrolled in the journalism school of Woodbury College, a two year business college in Los Angeles, where she also worked in the college's employment office. After a year, she became a secretary in the State of California Purchasing Department in Los Angeles, during which time she learned to fly. In 1948, she enrolled in the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, graduating in 1952 with a BA degree from the college of Arts and Sciences School of Journalism. She was active in the Baptist Student Group, Gamma Alpha Chi (An honorary advertising sorority), and The Flying Kernels. One week after graduation, February 2, 1952, she married Harlan (Harley) L. Watson in Omaha, Nebraska. Due to his employment with Northern Natural Gas Co., which later became InterNorth and then Enron Corporation, they lived in Paullina, Iowa, Welcome, Minnesota and Omaha, Nebraska before retiring in 1983 to Sun City, Arizona. They moved to Kearney, Nebraska in October of 2003. In Paullina, Iowa, she was active in the Presbyterian Church, Music Club, Women's Club and Eastern Star (a past matron). While in Minnesota, Louise was a reporter, rewrite editor, and religion editor on the Fairmont (Minnesota) Daily Sentinel. In Omaha, she was a secretary for Omaha Steaks International and later for Environmental Systems Construction Co.. Louise is survived by her husband, Harley Watson of Kearney, NE; children, Mary K. Roethemeyer and husband, Gordon of Kearney, NE, Claudia L. Cecetka and husband, Rich of Ord, NE, Leonard A. Watson and wife, Cindi of Elk Grove, CA, Jane F. Minardi of Arlington, TX, and Richard G. Watson and wife, Mary of Omaha, NE; nine grandchildren, and five great grandchildren, as well as her sister, Kathleen M. Gray of Reno, NV.

Louise M Watson

November 5, 1927 - May 18, 2014