Diana Watkins' Obituary
Diana K. Watkins, widow of Alpha Corporation founder William D. Watkins, died August 29 at age 91.A Canadian by birth but Southerner by temperament, Diana moved to Germantown in 1960 with her husband to start what was then called the Alpha Chemical Company (later known as the Alpha Corporation, parent company of AOC). With their life’s savings, she and her husband bought land for the fledgling company just outside Collierville. On it was an old, windowless general store that became their first base of operation before building a plant.Diana worked there in that old building–abandoned since World War II–serving for a period as the company secretary. A salesman, calling on the company in 1960, referred to the rustic conditions and lack of running water in that original building: “You must be related to somebody here,” he told Diana, “because nobody but kin would work out here.”Her sacrificial support was key to her husband’s success in realizing his dream to establish an international manufacturing company. And she became the elegant and gracious first lady of that enterprise, entertaining stockholders and customers for decades.Smart, witty, and well read, she also achieved plenty on her own. Long active in the Germantown community, she helped found Germantown Community Theatre in 1972, served as secretary on its board (1980) and went on to act in a number of the theatre’s productions. She had a lead role in GCT’s production of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” in the late 1970s and appeared in “Damn Yankees” in 1979.A committed and tireless churchwoman at Germantown Presbyterian Church where she was a member for 56 years, she sang in the choir for decades and was active in Presbyterian Women, receiving the Honorary Life Membership award in 1996. She was an avid gardener and flower-arranger and longtime member of the Suburban Garden Club. Her zeal for learning and literature prompted her to enroll at the University of Memphis when she was in her 50s. She was long active in the Friends of the Memphis Library. Among friends she was renowned for her entertaining skills and the annual Christmas day party she hosted with her husband for many years.Diana loved walks in her garden, witty friends, books with surprise endings, her own cooking, dressing up and doing anything with family. She was devoted to her husband and her four children, and she adored her grandchildren and great grandchild.The youngest of four children of British-born parents, she moved to Niagara Falls, NY, from Canada when she was 2 and became a US citizen. Her father died when she was 16, and she worked to support her mother for years.She is survived by two sons, Caleb Watkins of Sea Grove, FL (fiancée Tara Steele), and Matthew Watkins (wife Melanie) of Memphis; two daughters, Martha Swan (husband Jerry) of Collierville and Helen Norman (husband Fred) of Germantown. Her surviving grandchildren are: Michael Norman, Sarah Norman Lucas (Will), Phillip Braun (Laura), Jeremy Swan (Heather), Allie Watkins, Megan Watkins, Will Watkins, Connor Thompson, Camryn Thompson and Chloe Thompson. She has one great grandchild, Diana Catherine Braun, named for her, and two more great grandchildren on the way.Visitation will be at Memorial Park Funeral Home from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Labor Day, Monday, September 3. Following a private burial, a memorial service will be held at Germantown Presbyterian Church at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 4.In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials go to the Music Program at Germantown Presbyterian Church or to the Church Health Center.
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