MEADOW BLUFF W.Va. (WVDN) – In the hills of West Virginia you’ll find many a centenarian. Some say this is due to the fresh mountain air and entanglement with nature at every turn; some say it’s the isolation from the outside world; but one West Virginian credits all the above, along with faith, family and friends. This is a compelling story of a lady from Mercer County who is about to turn 103 years young on April 2, 2024, Ocie Watkins. She now lives in Meadow Bluff in Greenbrier County, in a guest house beside her daughter, Amanda Butler.
Butler recounts her mother’s story:
Ocie Watkins was born to a poor coal miner and his wife on a spring day in April of 1921, at the cusp of the Great Depression. However, as the fifth of 12 children from an impoverished family in Mercer County, West Virginia, they didn’t know depressed times from normal life. Sadly, nine of her siblings have passed yet two remain and have aged gracefully into their 80s and 90s. Her oldest brother, aged 22, and father, aged 56, were devastatingly crushed in the coal mines. In the summers, they ran barefoot and ate fresh fruit, helping their mother can and store food. In the winter, they ate what they had saved and made soups from dandelion and plantain leaves until the blooms turned to vegetables and fruit. She recalls one Christmas as a young child looking at their scrappy tree before bed, wondering if Santa might visit their house just one time; He would never come. She does, however, recall her father bringing her a small lantern filled with candy one year and a doll another, but they couldn’t afford clothes or hair for the doll, so her mother did her best to make them from scraps.
Watkins was a smart child and excelled in school. She had a love of learning from an early age and stood out from others in their one-room schoolhouse on Taylor Mountain. Here she gained a love of poetry, reading and writing that would stay with her throughout her life. Unfortunately, after primary school, Ocie would need to walk to the local high school to continue her education. She and her sister were able to go a few weeks in the nineth grade, but because her sister suffered from crippling asthma and could no longer walk the long distance, Ocie was also forced to abandon school. During this period, young girls didn’t walk unaccompanied or with males outside their families. As education wasn’t important to most at this point, no one cared that the girls would no longer attend school – except Watkins.
Fast forward to the late ’30s when Ocie was introduced to her future husband, Frank Watkins, a coal miner in McComas who had a third-grade education and worked from the age of 7. They shared their first date with her sister and husband at the Chip-In, a restaurant in Bluewell, West Virginia, where potato chips and soda were served. At this time in the U.S., chips were “new” and had become very popular, making the Chip-In the place to be. Frank and Ocie married in December of 1940 and welcomed their two sons in the following years, Frank Jr. “Frankie” and Roger.
Life moved along for the young family. Ocie would be a homemaker and work occasional jobs as the opportunities presented themselves, and Frank would continue in the coal mines. The boys would attend school, grow and move away to start their own families. With her sons grown and her love of education still apparent, Ocie would go on to study and pass her GED, as well as attend college classes at Bluefield College of Evangelism, where she flourished.
Later in life, Ocie played a role in raising her grandchildren and adopted her first great-granddaughter with whom she currently lives beside. While her parents, husband, both sons, many friends and loved ones have passed away, Ocie is still the matriarch of a family consisting of her daughter, Amanda, five grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great-grandchildren. She is loved and cared for by many and credits her beautiful life to God.
To put in perspective the lifetime of a 103-year-old, she was alive during the reign of King George V and had lived to see five monarchs reign (the most recent being King Charles III). She remembers when they started slicing bread; she saw family and friends sent to World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, the Croatian War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and more. She saw inventions that shook the world such as the vacuum cleaner, insulin, bubble gum, car radios, teddy bears, airplanes, all modern kitchen appliances and the atomic bomb. Lastly, Ocie and her fellow centenarians have lived to see mankind travel only as fast as a horse could run, to seeing men on the moon and pictures of distant galaxies. These individuals are known as “The Greatest Generation.” What they have lived through and witnessed, the milestones achieved and hard times endured are what shaped their world and ours.
A word of gratitude for Ocie Watkins and the many West Virginians who understood a world many dearly cling to. They pull up their bootstraps and take the bull by the horns. West Virginia knows how to survive and thrive thanks to our predecessors. Without these truly amazing stories of a different time, we would not truly understand one major aspect of being a West Virginian; our history. It is alive and well today with our FFA, 4-H, Scouts, local farms, quilting guilds, canning and preservation rituals; all due to the knowledge and wisdom passed down from folks like Ocie and Frank Watkins.
Happiest 103rd birthday, and many more to “Mountain Mama” Ocie Watkins.
