...about his life. Like, why did he only go through fourth grade? I'm sure it had to do with his father dying when he was nine and the hard times that followed. One of my older brothers told me that he liked to drink and play music with guitar thumpers in town, and that one time his mother pulled him out of a beer joint and told him to get home to his family.
But I never knew that side of him. When I came along -- child number ten -- we went to every church service and walked when the car didn't start. So, what happened? He got saved and it influenced all of us.
I have vibrant memories of him playing music on his guitar with a group of men in the living room while I tapped my foot. I see him playing the piano by ear. I see him grabbing Mama and laughing when he felt happy. I see him reading the Bible. I see him at the kitchen table every pay day, perplexed by bills. I see him leaning forward in his easy chair by the piano, singing bass in four-part-harmoney gospel arrangements as my older sister played the piano and sang alto, and I (about ten or twelve) attempted to sing soprano.
Gene Watson, father of twelve, was a miner and went to meet the Lord in 1973.
