James Harold Watson

Published 3:16 pm Tuesday, February 21, 2012

James Harold Watson, 88, of Georgiana, Alabama, passed away Sunday, February 19, 2012, at Georgiana Hospital.a
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at Johnson Funeral Home with Rev. Allen Stevens officiating.  Mr. Watson’s family will receive friends Monday evening from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Johnson Funeral Home, Georgiana, Alabama.  Following the funeral, burial will be at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery.
He was the only child of William Hershel Watson and Lilly Armstrong Watson of Georgiana who preceded him in death.  He was born July 9, 1923 at his parents’ home at Chapman, Alabama.  His father was employed by W. T. Smith Lumber Company.  His mother was the first employee of Nightingale Uniform Company where she worked until retirement.  At the age of 11, James started earning his own money delivering newspapers for the Alabama Journal.  He would rise early, ride his bike to deliver papers and then attend school at East Chapman.  In June of 1942 he graduated from Georgiana High School.  While in high school,  he had a successful football career that let him to consider a football career at the University of Alabama.  He chose, however, to marry Jimmie Vee Sellers, daughter of Frank and Nan Sellers.  They were married August 22, 1942 in the parsonage of First Baptist Church of Georgiana.
Before being drafted into the military during World War II, Mr. Watson and his wife lived in Mobile, Alabama where he worked at the shipyard.  Later they moved to Winter Park, Florida where he received basic training before being shipped to England, where he served as a B-17 as a tail gunner, flying missions over Germany.  When the war ended, James returned to the Starlington community in Butler County to be with his family and began a career in the timber industry, first hauling pulp and later forming a successful pole mill company associated with Union Camp of Chapman, Alabama.
James was a member of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church where he served as deacon and a Sunday school teacher.
Mr. Watson is survived by his wife of 70 years, Jimmie Vee, his three children:  daughter and son-in-law, Barbara and Danny Posey of Andalusia, son and daughter-in-law, Lynn and Dorothy West Watson of Georgiana, and son and daughter-in-law, Bill and Teresa Grant Watson of Greenville; nine grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren.
Serving as pallbearers will be Mr. Watson’s grandsons:  Steve Posey, Scott Posey, Shannon Posey, Frank Watson, Christopher Watson and Tom Watson.
Honorary pallbearers will be Clayton Posey, John Sewell, Jason Gregory and Jimmy Mason.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery Fund c/o Randal Sims at 7452 Pineapple Hwy, Greenville, Alabama 36037.