A CELEBRATION OF LIFE will be held for Wilbur at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, August 20, 2022 at the First Christian Church, 1045 S. Hickory Street, Ottawa, Kansas.

MILITARY GRAVESIDE HONORS will be presented by USAF Whitman AFB Honors Group, Appleton City VFW Post #11242 and Butler DAV Chapter 67.

INURNMENT will follow the service in Highland Cemetery, Ottawa, Kansas.

MEMORIAL to Wayside Waifs, Kansas City, MO.

Wilbur Clyde Watts, son of Charley Clifford and Nellie Ernestine (Wright) Watts, was born February 22, 1934 in Ottawa, Kansas.  He departed this life on Monday, April 25, 2022 at his home in Appleton City, Missouri at 88 years of age.

Wilbur grew up in Ottawa graduating from Ottawa High School.  As a teenager he worked as a pin setter in the local bowling alley.  The owner bragged on his efficiency saying that he could set pins faster and better than any of his other employees.

Each year as long as the Gene Autry Festival was held in Gene Autry, Oklahoma, Wilbur attended.  He enjoyed all the festivities and music.  Wilbur loved music and proudly collected and owned many, many albums of different genres and styles.  He always tried to live by Roy Roger's standards who was his all-time hero, and for those who are unfamiliar with those rules they are as follows:  be neat and clean, be courteous and polite, always obey your parents, protect the weak and help them, be brave but never take chances, study hard and learn all you can, be kind to animals and take care of them, eat all your food and never waste any, love God and go to Sunday school regularly, and always respect our flag and our country.  Wilbur enjoyed reading and especially liked westerns written by William W. Johnstone.  He usually read one book each week.  Wilbur was very devout, and also read his Bible regularly.  At the time of his death, he was in the middle of reading it all the way through for the third time.  He would get out his Bible and surround himself with all the study materials he wished to have handy to help in better understanding and begin.

Wilbur retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1974 as a tech sergeant after 22 years of service.  He enlisted in 1952 and specialized as a mechanic on the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II quad-prop transport planes.  Wilbur told how he once had to climb out on a wing while airborne, to repair one of the engines and keep the loaded plane from crashing. While he was stationed in Germany, he was the first person to drive across the  line at the Berlin Wall which separated East and West Germany during World War II.  Until about five years, Wilbur would spend a few hours each day entering World War II veteran names and info in the Washington D.C. data base.

Wilbur loved his family and kept in close contact with his three children as they skyped each Wednesday sharing all the things that were happening in their lives.  He always remembered family members who had gone on to their reward by decorating those graves each Memorial Day in five cemeteries in the Ottawa area.

Wilbur was preceded in death by his parents; a sister, Eva Marie Watts; three brothers, Chester Watts,  Eldon Watts and Dale Watts; and a son-in-law, Doug Bower.  Survivors include his wife Sherry Lynn (Baker) Watts; his children: Cynthia Bower, Stephan Watts, and Elizabeth (James) Forney;  his granddaughters, Nicole (Evan) Bridges and Helene Forney; one grandson, Joe Melton (Gini Pryor); many step-grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and six adoring cats.