Pauline (“Polly”) Margaret Collins Watler was born July 8, 1920 in Port Arthur, Texas at the home of her parents Lionel A. Collins and Pauline Leverett Collins. She was the loving and devoted wife of Dorcy L.H. Watler, the wonderful and supportive mother of Hughes, Mark and Paul, and the proud and doting grandmother of Kevin, Tracy, Blair, Gregory and Reid.
Polly died March 1, 2006 in Beaumont from complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
A rosary will be said at 7:00 p.m., Friday, at Broussard’s Mortuary, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont. A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, 475 North 11th Street, Beaumont. Interment will follow at Magnolia Cemetery, Beaumont.
As the fourth of five children, Polly enjoyed a happy childhood in a large Catholic family in Port Arthur where her father was assistant controller for the Gulf Oil refinery. Her mother came from German immigrant and Texas pioneer family stock and her father’s family, mostly of Irish ancestry, hailed from Louisiana.
Polly was a tomboy as a young girl and eagerly joined in the escapades of her two brothers, Lionel A. Collins, Jr. and Harold E. Collins. One grand adventure consisted of Harold accepting Polly’s dare to ride his bicycle down the outdoor fire escape slide from the second floor of the old DeQueen Elementary School. She also much enjoyed the attention and companionship of her sisters, Susie Elizabeth Collins and Mary Julia Collins.
The family took frequent driving vacations, including annual summer treks to San Antonio where Polly fondly recalled visiting the Breckenridge Zoo and the sights of the Alamo city.
Her idyllic youth was marred when her beloved father unexpectedly died in his sleep in 1932 soon after Polly turned 12. The family often attributed his death at age 43 to the stress of having to deal with the lay-off of workers at the Gulf plant during the Great Depression. Her mother was suddenly thrust into raising five growing children, four of whom were high school age or younger at the time, as a young widow.
After attending St. James Elementary School, Polly graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1937 and soon went to work in the accounting office of the Gulf refinery. She worked at the refinery through the years of World War II, a trying time for her as her two brothers went off to war. Lionel graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and saw extensive combat duty in the Pacific in the Navy. Harold enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as soon as he turned 18, and he then flew combat reconnaissance missions in the European theater.
After the war, she met the love of her life when her good friend, Eleanor Hardin, fixed her up with a blind date. Eleanor’s husband, Bill, introduced Polly to his Aggie buddy, Dorcy Watler. Dorcy was also a Port Arthur native and a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School. When they met at Thanksgiving in 1946, Dorcy had just returned from nearly two-years of distinguished service as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army to re-enroll as an architecture student at Texas A&M. He had proudly served in the 42nd Rainbow Infantry Division, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Oak Leaf cluster for combat service in Europe. For the rest of their lives, Dorcy’s Army service and experience as a proud Aggie of the Class of 1945 was an important part of their lives as Polly and Dorcy attended a number of Aggie and Rainbow Division reunions and functions.
Polly and Dorcy were married in St. James Catholic Church on September 6, 1947. Polly was particularly glad to be married in the church her father had helped found years earlier.
From 1947 to 1950, Polly and Dorcy lived in College Station while Dorcy completed his architecture degree and then began his career as a young architect in the office of Bill Nash. They were blessed with the birth of their first son, D. Hughes Watler, Jr., who was born in Bryan, Texas on July 9, 1948.
In 1950, Dorcy accepted an offer to join the Beaumont architectural firm of Stone & Pitts. They remained residents of Beaumont the rest of their lives. Their family grew with the birth of Mark Collins Watler on March 22, 1951 and Paul Christopher Watler on June 23, 1954.
They provided a loving, traditional post-war family life for their young sons. Polly volunteered time in the library at St. Anne’s School where her sons attended, served as a Cub Scout den mother and devoted countless hours helping her sons with school projects and extracurricular activities. She spent many an occasion cheering her boys on in football, basketball and baseball. She was especially supportive of the Scouting activities of Dorcy and the boys. Her husband, an Eagle Scout as a youth, founded Boy Scout Troop 85 in 1959 at St. Anne’s with his boyhood friend, Frank Messina. Dorcy served as Scoutmaster for years, and all three boys actively participated in the troop, during which time Polly ironed uniforms, sewed on patches and proudly attended Courts of Honor. When her sons attended Kelly High School, Polly was an enthusiastic supporter of their activities and of the school.
After her youngest was off to college, Polly went back to business school and then worked full-time for nine years in the Jefferson County tax assessor office. Always a frugal person, Polly helped her sons with their college expenses and saved for retirement.
Polly’s life was blessed with grandchildren, including her first grandchild, Shelly Diane Watler, born to Hughes and Barbara on June 2, 1979, and who died in a tragic accident in 1981, a few months after her second birthday. She was later blessed as a grandmother with the birth of Tracy Rene Watler, born to Hughes and Barbara on March 30, 1984, Emily Blair Watler, born to Paul and Julie on September 10, 1987, Gregory Leith Watler, born on August 21, 1989 and soon placed in the loving arms of Mark and Diane, and Christopher Reid Watler, born to Paul and Julie on July 12, 1991. She was also the proud grandmother to Barbara’s son, Kevin Manahan.
Polly retired from the tax office in 1983 and devoted herself to her husband, her family and grandchildren. She spent many of her retired years helping others, working again as a volunteer at Kelly High School and later delivering Meals on Wheels to homebound patients.
She was a devoted, life-long Catholic who passed along her strong faith to her husband, children and grandchildren. She regularly attended Mass and took Holy Communion as a parishioner at St. Anne’s Catholic Church for more than 55 years. In her later years, she and Dorcy were active members of the “49’ers” (seniors group) and regularly attended a weekly Adoration of the Sacred Host at St. Anne’s. Polly and Dorcy were honored by their family and friends with a celebration of their 50th Anniversary on September 6, 1997, at which they renewed their marriage vows.
Polly’s mother preceded her in death in 1962, and her beloved sister Julia died suddenly in 1978.
Polly is survived by her devoted and loving husband Dorcy; her son D. Hughes Watler, daughter-in-law Barbara and granddaughter Tracy, all of Houston; her son Mark and grandson Gregory, also of Houston; and her son Paul, daughter-in-law Julie and grandchildren Blair and Reid of Dallas. She is also survived by her sister Susie Collins McGill of Houston; her brother Lionel and sister-in-law Kate Collins of Guilderland, New York; her brother Maj. Gen. Harold Collins (retired) of San Antonio; and her sister-in-law Mary Holmes and her husband Charles of Port Arthur, along with numerous nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions may be made to the scholarship fund at Monsignor Kelly High School, 5950 Kelly Drive, Beaumont, Texas 77707 or to the Alzheimer’s Association, Beaumont Chapter, 440 North 18th Street, Beaumont, Texas 77707.
The family gratefully acknowledges the compassionate care provided to Polly by the nursing staff at Calderwoods Retirement Home and the hospice staff of Odyssey Healthcare.
I wanted to share with you one fond memory I have of my Mom. It is the story of how I came to be an astronaut buff--a fan of the American space program as a result of my Mom.
My family certainly remembers how as a boy I had a great interest in the space program. I am talking about the very earliest days of the manned space travel. I was an astronaut nut. I read everything I could find about the astronauts and NASA. I watched every launch on TV. I even snuck a portable radio in my backpack to school at St. Anne's a couple of times. I would excuse myself from class to listen to a launch on the radio in a stall in the boy’s bathroom, without the teacher knowing.
Growing up as a schoolboy in the 1960s, I really wanted to be an astronaut. That was my dream. That was my ambition.
Let me tell you how all that began. It began with Mom. It all came from spending some one-on-one time with Mom one day when I was six years old.
I was a first grader at St. Anne's school. I had a sore throat, and I stayed home from school. Mom took very good care of me. She probably should have been a nurse, because she took such good care of you when you were home sick from school.
I happen to remember the date. It was May 5, 1961. That was the day that Alan Shephard was launched into space. Shephard was the first American to travel in space.
In those days, one of the treats of staying home from school was getting to watch TV during the day.
On this day, Mom had the TV turned on for me. So, together, we watched the news coverage of the. Alan Shephard launch. I sat in Mom's lap, and we watched our old, fuzzy, black-and-white TV. We didn't need a remote control. There was nothing else on any of the three -count 'em, THREE TV channels--we got then.
Mom was just spellbound watching that launch. I really have no memory at all of knowing about or being interested in the space program before that day. Before May 5, 1961, there had been quite a bit going on in the space race. Russia had beaten us into space with the launch of Sputnik. Then they beat us again by putting a man in orbit in April, 1961. There had been an unsuccessful attempt to launch Shephard earlier that May.
But I have no memory of any of that before May 5, 1961. Before that day that I stayed home with Mom, I knew absolutely nothing about the space program.
But that day, just my Mom and I watched it together--just the two of us. It was our special time together.
And Mom was so excited and fascinated by it. She was more excited than a six year old boy. And I caught the fever from her then. That's what got me excited and fascinated about the space program.
Now the end of the story is--believe it or not--I never did become an astronaut. It turns out, astronauts have to be good in math. And Sister Therese's geometry class just about killed me, years later at Kelly High School.
But even if I had become an astronaut--even if I had gotten to ride a rocket into space just like Alan Shephard--I could not have had a better memory than I do of spending May 5, 1961 with my Mom.
