[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 8, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF LILLIAN BERNICE VARNADO WATKINS

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. TERRI A. SEWELL

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 8, 2013

  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and pay 
tribute to the life and legacy of educator and homemaker, Mrs. Lillian 
Watkins, a beloved educator and homemaker.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins passed away on Sunday, October 6 at the age of 
96. While I am deeply saddened by her passing, I am comforted in 
knowing that her legacy is one that will live on through her 
involvement in public education, the values she instilled in her 
children and the foundation of her husband's success.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins was born on March 13, 1917 in Canton, 
Mississippi as the fourth of Reverend Willie L. Varnado and Mrs. Etta 
Pearl Varnado's five children. She attended elementary, primary and 
secondary schools in Canton and Jackson, Mississippi. Mrs. Watkins 
earned her bachelor's degree from Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee 
where she graduated cum laude.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins taught civics and home economics at Burt High 
School in Clarksville, Tennessee following graduation. She later 
married one of her fellow teachers, Mr. Levi Watkins Sr. After marrying 
in 1940 the couple moved to Parsons, Kansas where she gave birth to 
five of their six children. In 1948, the family moved to Montgomery, 
Alabama where the sixth child was born.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins raised six children, all of which have broken 
racial barriers in the South by holding leadership positions in the 
arts, business, education, government and medicine.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins' husband is known for his transformational 
leadership as the president of Alabama State University. He took the 
university from a small teacher's college to a destination university 
accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools upon his 
departure in 1981. Although her husband is highly respected for his 
legacy at Alabama State University, Mrs. Watkins' children give her the 
credit for their successes in life. She was the personality of the 
family giving her children the rock-solid confidence they would need to 
achieve their goals.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins' son, Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. was the first 
African-American graduate of Vanderbilt University and the first 
cardiac surgeon in the country to perform a human implantation of the 
automatic implantable defibrillator. Another son of Mrs. Watkins' is a 
retired surgeon while one of her daughters is a concert pianist.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins' son Donald Watkins, Sr., Esq., was Montgomery's 
first black city attorney and one of the first African-Americans on the 
City Council. Watkins describes his mother as the ``rock'' of the 
family. He said that because of the love and respect she provided to 
all of her children they never had to look outside of the home for 
validation.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins' daughter Doristine Minott was the principal of 
Southlawn Middle School until her retirement in 2007. Mrs. Minott 
remembers her mother for teaching her children to be humble and ``to 
see beauty in the simplest things.'' She remembers, ``My mom was the 
quiet giant behind my dad's success . . . It was she who quieted the 
storms during the difficult times.''
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins is remembered as one who fully embraced her 
roles of wife, mother and homemaker and later, as aunt, grandmother and 
great-grandmother.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins had a passion for music, sewing, art, decorating 
and traveling. In her later years, she developed a gift for writing 
poetry. She participated in poetry readings at Art Festivals in her 
community and at church while living in Ohio with her daughter. Several 
of her poems were later published in two books.
  Mrs. Lillian Watkins' legacy will live on through the lives of her 
six children. All six of her children have broken tremendous racial 
barriers not only in Alabama but across the country. The success of her 
children is only a reflection of the integrity and humility that she 
instilled in each of them.
  Saying thank you to Mrs. Lillian Watkins seems woefully inadequate. 
But, we are truly grateful for the life of this extraordinary public 
servant, educator, mother and homemaker. On behalf of the 7th 
Congressional District, the State of Alabama and this Nation, I ask my 
colleagues to join me in honoring the life and legacy of Mrs. Lillian 
Watkins.

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