Obituary of Dora Leona Watson

Funeral services for Dora Leona Watson age 85 of West Monroe will be held 2:30 PM Sunday December 1, 2019 from the Columbia chapel of Riser & Son Funeral Home with Rev. Robert Holloway officiating. Interment will follow in the Welcome Home Cemetery at Grayson. Visitation will be at the funeral home on Saturday November 30, 2019 from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM.

Dora Leona Zeagler Watson was born on June 21, 1934 at Grayson, Louisiana to the union of her beloved parents Aaron Dee Zeagler and Carrie Mackey Buckley Zeagler and passed from this life on November 28, 2019 at the Ridgecrest Nursing Center in West Monroe following an extended illness. She has been known by several titles in her life, Leona, Sweet Potato Zeagler, Mamaw, Momma and Yomie.

She was the valedictorian of her class from Grayson High School in 1952. She attended Louisiana Tech University for two years before leaving school to become a wife and mother. In 1960, with a toddler and infant child she returned to school to finish her education at Northeast Louisiana College, graduating in the top 10 per cent of her class with a Bachelors in Education. Later she went back to school, while teaching full time and received her Masters, a plus 30, plus a degree in Special Education, from Northeast Louisiana University. Her career as an educator began in 1962, at Louisiana Training Institute for Boys (Swanson Correctional Center), where she remained for thirty-three years. While at LTI she served as teacher, costume maker and director of plays and vocal performances by young men. When asked one time how did she do the job she did, she said, “Its the one that shows the desire to learn that keeps me going.”

She is survived by her husband of sixty five years Howard Watson of West Monroe, LA; her daughters Carrie Watson of Waco, Texas and Dee Anne Nappier of West Monroe, LA and sister Martha Eldridge and husband Jimmy of West Monroe, LA; three grandchildren, Lucas Nappier, Timothy Nappier and wife Miranda and Tara Nappier; and her great-gransons Landon Beach and Hunter Nappier; several nieces and nephews and a host of friends.

Serving as pallbearers will be Ray Nappier, Lucas Nappier,Timothy Nappier, John Eldridge, Aaron Eldridge and Mike Milliken.

Online registry/condolences: riserfuneralhomes.com