Betty Watkins: Gentle Servant to All
By Rande Davis

Friends and family joined daughters and sons-in-law, Joan and Bill Carroll and Jane and Bob Hottle to celebrate the life of Elizabeth J. Watkins on December 21 at the Poolesville Baptist Church. She passed away on December 15. Known by most as Betty, the more fortunate knew her as Mom, Aunt Betty, Miss Betty, Mrs. Titus, Mrs. Watkins, and most affectionately by her six grandchildren, thirteen great grandchildren, and six great, great grandchildren as Mema (pronounced meemaw). She was also the “second mom” to Bramwell Hightman, born deaf, who after losing his dad and mother, had Betty fill in as a parent to him as a young man. She eventually became a guiding force that encouraged him to go into ministry to the deaf.
The many names and titles for Betty represent the various relationships she nurtured throughout her ninety-three years. This remarkable little lady, born nine months before the end of World War I, began life in Riner, Virginia. At the age of twelve, she had to drop out of eighth grade to help raise her siblings upon the death of her mother.
She came to the Poolesville area at sixteen where her life’s purpose of caring and nurturing all who came in contact with her grew out of simple ways and roles. For twelve years, she ran the Poolesville High School cafeteria where she was remembered for her perpetual smile and her quiet expression of support for the students. As a mother figure to many, it is not surprising that her loving sustenance often came from her talents as a cook and baker. Decades after her time at the school, her potato soup, mac and cheese, tuna fish sandwiches, and other simple home-style cooking were so fondly recalled.
Her first husband James T. Titus died in 1967, and it was during her nineteen years of running Titus’s Tasty Cupboard (now Bassett’s Restaurant) that her culinary expertise flowered and grew in reputation. Her pies (arguments still develop over lemon chocolate meringue versus cherry or pecan) were not only highly touted by locals, but even people like President Jimmy Carter, late Senator Wayne Morse, and the then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed the greatness of her talent in baking pies. It is after selling the diner when many others came to know her while working at the First National Bank and at a local dry cleaner.
Betty married Wilfred Watkins in 1972. He had three grown children with spouses that she readily adopted as her own, as he did her children, Joan and Jane. Even though Mr. Watkins died thirty-five years ago, the extended family has remained close with the Titus side even to this day, due to Betty.
She attended Memorial United Methodist Church until the opening of Poolesville Baptist Church when she returned to her religious roots.
Celebrated as a woman of great faith, it was her activities at her churches, hospice, and many other caring and giving groups for which she was best known.
A patriotic American (she kept a United States flag on her kitchen window and the phone number of the White House near the phone), she was also remembered as a person of comfort, humor, and one who loved to travel, especially to visit relatives but also more exotic places like Australia, New Zealand, the Holy Land, and Hawaii, just to mention a few.
Her feistiness and strong sense of humor (her witticisms are referred to as “Memaisms” by the family) were remembered through stories told by family and friends. One such story told how her love of driving and devotion to Chevrolet automobiles was exemplified by her begrudgingly giving up her floor-rusted 1956 green Chevy Nova for a Mercury. Just this past November, only weeks before entering the hospital, the feisty little lady was caught washing a kitchen window while standing on a ladder. When admonished as to the danger and asked what she would do if the ladder tipped, even at ninety-three, she had a simple answer: “Why, I would just jump clear.” A child of the Depression, she became the ultimate recycler. Famous for her handwritten notes on used scraps of paper, one time she left a note on the white paper covering to a wire coat hanger.
Above all else, it was her modeling of her deep and abiding faith that empowered her special gift of comfort to all around her. With a police escort worthy of a very high public official leading the way, and with bagpipes mournfully playing, she was laid to rest at Monocacy Cemetery. Once again, Poolesville has lost a grand lady and, for many, she will be recalled as she was remembered: the Princess of Poolesville.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Betty's name to the Poolesville Baptist Church, 17550 West Willard Road, Poolesville; or the Poolesville Memorial United Methodist Church, P. O. Box 358, Poolesville; or Hospice Caring, 518 South Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877.
Note: The Monocle had the privilege of interviewing Betty for an April 28, 2006 article on her life in her own words, and that tribute has been reposted on our website: www.monocleonline.com.

To Plow or Not to Plow

The following two letters were sent to the Poolesville Town Commissioners regarding the snow left at the end of a driveway after plowing. Both were also sent to the Monocle editor. What would you advise the commissioners on the subject of both emails?

To the Commissioners:
(Sent January 12, 2011)
I'd like to commend the town staff who did the plowing on Seneca Chase Park Road last night - it was the first time that my driveway was not covered back up with more snow than before :-)
Kudos to whoever did it right by plowing twice in BOTH directions, the second time with the blade facing AWAY from the driveway!

PW

To the Commissioners:
(Sent Janurary 26, 2011)
To the Commissioners
Attached is a picture from today's snow plowing showing the more typical result after plowing ... 1"-2" of light snow turns into 1'-2' of heavy snow chunks/ice left on the driveway.
I bring this to your attention on behalf of seniors (and soon-to-be seniors like myself), hoping there may be a way to alleviate this unintended consequence/burden ... shoveling 1-2" of snow is one thing, but lifting 1-2 foot chunks of ice/snow is something else.

PW

Town Election Results

Poolesville Town Election Results
Jim Brown: 698 (elected)
Chuck Stump: 573 (elected)
Jennifer Kasten: 555
Charter Revision: Approve - 369 Against - 575
Changing Name to Town of Poolesville: Approve - 909 Against 94.

Noise in Poolesville

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
What has happened to the silence of night? When I was a little girl, I used to wake at night and see a sky so spangled with stars, I would be pulled from my bed to go walk in the fields and look up at the magnificent night sky. Now, the stars are dimmed by encroaching city lights and the quantities of houses where there used to be only fields. In those days, the day had only country sounds: friends from the city would come out and one of their first comments would always be, “It’s so QUIET!” Now the thrum of traffic and trucks on Route 109 and the blare of the county pool loudspeakers have taken care of that. But until recently, we still had the quiet of the night. No longer. It may have been around for longer, but I first noticed it this summer. Some animal cry waked me and I went out to check the alpacas. They were fine, spread out like statues in a field wrapped in mist. I stood at the fence, enjoying the eerie peace of the night when I suddenly heard it: the steady mechanical sound of a distant motor. Or generator. Or I don’t know what. Rising and falling above the cricket song was a rushing mechanical noise, like traffic on a highway – except there is no highway. It sounded like it was coming from the southwest, which would put it on the other side of Poolesville, towards the high school or Whites Ferry Road. But noises are deceptive and it could be coming from anywhere. I thought, well, maybe it’s just tonight. But I have heard it every night since. During the day it is obscured by day sounds, but as all other noises- except the crickets- die away, this loud hum rises to the fore and is there all through the night and on into what used to be the stillness of the morning. Does anyone know what it is? Are we stuck with it for all time? Is the stillness of night in the country lost to us forever? I have mourned the passage of the starlight and the day quiet but had taken refuge in the silence and peace of our night. Is that, too, gone? Are the developers to get it ALL?
Sincerely,
Ann Kephart Brown

Shared Drive Use: A comment

Dear Home Business Owners & Home Owners who share a driveway:

FYI on October 18 at 7:30 pm at Town Hall, the Commissioners of Poolesville will be discussing proposed changes in zoning language that could effect your rights to operate a home business in the future. Under consideration is Ordinance 182 & 183 which would prohibit “any special exception that increases the number of vehicles using the driveway”.

The proposed changes in #183 would prohibit homes which share a common driveway from being granted a special exception. Certain home businesses are permitted in residential zoned neighborhoods under existing town codes. The board of zoning appeals in granting special exceptions insures that residential neighborhoods are protected from undesirable impact through the evaluation of existing zoning guidelines. For example the owner of the business must live in the home.

If a neighbor is not burdened by another having a business, then to restrict home owners from home-based business is too great a limitation on our freedoms. In this age of recession and poor job opportunity, radical traffic congestion and the desire for more and more to work from home so as to be more actively present in raising children, to simply cut off the option is unwarranted. Clearly, home-based businesses that can demonstrate little or no undue burden on their neighbors should be allowed. If the zoning board determines that no additional or unreasonable burden of a home business exists, and it meets all other criteria af a town’s ordinance, then it should be allowed.


Shared driveway owners should be treated as all other home owners. They should not be excluded from the right to apply for a special exception and have a home business. To do so is to limit the use of the home.

Home business is returning. It is a healthy aspect of our community.

It provides valued local services and reduces travel. It removes the wasted hours of a commute.


If you want to learn more about proposed changes which could exclude the possibility of a home business on a shared driveway, please come to the town meeting Oct. 18 and assist our town leaders make decisions that will lead us in the best way.

Dr. Robin Mevissen

Dr. Thomas McInnes

New issue of the Monocle

The August 27 issue is now available online at www.monocacymonocle.
Actually, the July 16, July 30, and August 17 issues are there as well, I just missed making the announcements.
So be happy.

New issue of the Monocle

The June 25 issue is available at www.monocacymonocle.com