Emma Watts

Revelation 21:4 "..And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Emma Lois Watts Celebration of Life

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For your sake we are killed all the day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35 - 39

Emma Lois Watts, 80, daughter of the late Ernest and Viola Shives Watts was born in Iredell County on August 28, 1940. She received her wings and transitioned from life to eternity on Monday September 21, 2020 at Iredell Memorial Hospital, Statesville, after a brief illness. She was preceded in death by her brother Ernest Alfred Watts, Jr, her parents and several other family members.

Emma was a 1958 graduate of Morningside High School of Statesville NC. She also attended Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC. She was employed by and later retired from Carolina Mills.

Emma was also active in the civil rights movement. She and her brother Billy Watts participated in a sit in at Howard Johnsons restaurant counter on Aug 31, 1962 and were both arrested an put in jail. The anniversary of the protest was recently featured in the Aug 30, 2020 issue of the Statesville Record and Landmark.

At an early age, Emma joined Holsey Memorial CME Church where she was a junior stewardess and a junior usher. She continued to be actively involved in her church, serving as a member of the Missionary Society, the Senior Choir and the Shives Fellowship Choir. Her civic organizations included the Skyland Banner Elks Temple and the Garfield Senior Citizens Club. She was an avid bowler and loved to read and travel.

Cherishing her memory is her bother Billy Lewis Watts of Statesville, her niece Tammy Sawyer, of Statesville; her nephews William Louis “Billy” Watts of Aurora, CO; Russell (Valerie) Watts of Ayers, Mass; 2 great nieces Shanta Sawyer and Naomi Watts; 2 great nephews William Louis Watts, II and David Franklin Watts; one aunt, Beulah Mack of Statesville, sister-in-law Mary Agnes, of Statesville and a host of cousins, family, friends and her church family at Holsey Memorial CME Church.

Celebration of Life Services will be

conducted Saturday, September 26, 2020, at 12:00 p.m. at Rutledge and Bigham Funeral Home. Reverend Barbara McCollum will officiate.

Visit the Book of Memories for Ms. Watts at www.rutledgeandbigham.com. Rutledge and Bigham Funeral Home is serving the Watts Family.

There will be NO PUBLIC VISITATION (WAKE), unfortunately, with the COVID-19 Virus. We, at Rutledge and Bigham Funeral Home, along with other funeral homes across the country, have been issued a mandate to limit the number of family and/or friends at funeral services. YOU CAN ONLY ENTER THE FUNERAL WITH A FUNERAL PASS WHICH WILL BE GIVEN TO THE FAMILY.

Crossing the Bar

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have cross’d the bar.