Geneva Maxine Watts

Geneva Watts, 88, of Cleburne, passed away peacefully Monday afternoon, July 15, 2019, at home with her family by her side.

Geneva Maxine Watts was born in Brownsfield, Texas to A.D. and Badie (Reed) Hallmark. She was one of six children born to the couple. Growing up, she loved horses. Geneva was very much a tomboy. Her dad broke and sold horses, and Geneva followed in her father’s footsteps. She and her husband would catch wild horses to break and sell.

Geneva married the love of her life, Harold Watts, in September 1947. They would have celebrated their 72nd anniversary this fall. After they married, they traveled from Texas to California on an Indian Motorcycle. They loved to travel from California, to Alaska, and everywhere they went they made friends.

When Geneva was around 16, she shot a cigarette out of her boyfriend’s mouth with a 22 rifle. She could light a match with her rifle. She was a real Annie Oakley. She loved life and loved her family. She was a wonderful mom and taught both of her daughters to be moral, respectful, to love people, and most of all to love Jesus. In fact, she was a Sunday School teacher for toddlers in Merkel for several years. Geneva volunteered to help with the Brownies when her daughter, Rita, was young, and volunteered at a hospital in Hillsboro. She was also a helpmate to her husband. Anything he did, she helped, whether in a ditch with a shovel, guiding him with equipment, she even had her commercial driver’s license and teamed with him in long haul trucking. Later she drove a dump truck when they had Watt’s Dirt Construction for 35 years. She was a self-taught woman, doing all of the book keeping. She also took real estate classes, received her license, and sold real estate for a short time. The couple worked together and played together. In their younger years, they had a boat, fished, camped, loved to ski, was a rancher’s wife, trained and cared for race horses, and traveled all over the good old USA.

Geneva is preceded in death by her parents, A.D. and Badie Hallmark, three brothers, and one sister.

Left to cherish her memory is her husband of almost 72 years, Harold Watts of Cleburne; two daughters, Kay Ham and husband Kevin of Winnsboro, and Rita Watts of Cleburne; brother, Ronald Hallmark and wife Sheila of Moran, TX; five grandchildren, Monty Moore and wife Angie, Miranda Hannie and husband Tyler, Bryan Robertson and wife Toni, GayLynn Ford and husband Kevin, and Erin Ham Neill and husband Josh; 10 great grandchildren, and 5 great great grandchildren.

Visitation for Mrs. Geneva Watts is scheduled for 2-3 PM Friday, July 19, 2019 at Lowe Funeral Home in Quitman, Texas. A graveside service will follow at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Winnsboro with Brother David Ward officiating.

Serving as pallbearers will be Kevin Ford, Justin Ford, Monty Moore, Tyler Hannie, Kevin Ham, and Bill Blaine.

Joe Whitlow and Bill Smith will serve as honorary pallbearers.