Vesta Watkins Obituary

VESTA FERN WATKINS Vesta Fern (Marshall) Watkins passed away peacefully on July 7, 2025. She was born on February 6, 1930, in El Dorado, Kansas to Earl and Mary Marshall. After graduating from El Dorado High School in 1947, she began working as a telephone operator at the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. She married her husband, Benjamin Watkins, on April 3, 1953. After the tornado of 1958 took their home, Vesta and Ben made their home in Cave Springs where they lived out the rest of their years. They enjoyed spending time with family, traveling the world, and going on countless adventures together until his passing in 1978, after 25 wonderful years of marriage. Vesta retired in 1983 after working for Southwestern Bell for 35 years. Seeking new adventures, she decided to work as a bartender for the El Dorado V.F.W., Whiskey Alley, and The Blue Goose in the years that followed. All the while, she continued to travel the world, often with the companionship of family and friends. In her later years, Vesta found joy tending to her flower garden, honoring lost loved ones by decorating their headstones, attending programs and games for family and friends, playing solitaire, doing word searches, babysitting her great-great nieces, and drinking milkshakes. She also spent countless years rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas Jayhawks, and the Kansas State Wildcats. Vesta never lost her love of traveling and adventure as she continued to take bus trips and make regular stops at the bar until she turned 90. She had 95 happy and healthy years of life and will be missed by all of those who had the pleasure of knowing her. Vesta was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; her brother, James R. Pierce; her niece, Sherry Price; her great-nephew, Brad Barnhart; and her beloved dog, Tarko. She is survived by her niece, Diane Kerns (Maynard) of El Dorado; great-nephew, Timothy (Lindsay) Shumate of El Dorado; great-nephew, Breck (Mo) Barnhart of Wichita; and great-great nieces, Everleigh, Aliza, and Ileana Shumate. Visitation will be held on Monday, July 14, 2025, from 5:00 7:00 PM at Kirby Morris Funeral Home. A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, at 10:00 AM at Carlson Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Sunset Cemetery. If desired, memorial donations may be made to the Resource Center for Independent Living in El Dorado, Kansas.