Ransom H. “Buddy” Watkins, Jr.

Raleigh-Ransom H. “Buddy” Watkins, Jr., 86, passed away Sunday, July 9, 2017. A funeral service will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at Bryan-Lee Funeral Home in Garner. Burial will follow in the Middle Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. The family will receive friends and relatives at the funeral home from 10:00 – 10:45 am prior to the service. Mr. Ransom was born in Wake County to the late Ransom H. Watkins and Mary Alice Hester Watkins and lived in the Panther Branch Community. He came from a strong family of farmers. After his father’s death in 1957, Ransom continued the legacy of looking after the family farm to help support his mother and siblings. He grew cotton, tobacco and soybeans. Huge summer gardens were also planted and worked each year. He loved to share his vegetables with family and friends. Ransom was blessed with a loving mother, who lived to be 96 years old. He remained faithful and loyal to her care along with his two sisters and younger brother. The bond of love for his family was as strong as their devotion to farm life. In the mid-90s, Ransom was hired part-time with the Town of Garner, working in the town maintenance department. If you drove through Garner during those next 15 to 16 years, you probably saw Ransom cutting grass and picking up litter along Highway 70 or around the parks and public areas during the spring and summer months. He continued to garden and grow soybeans and look after his family’s farm. Ransom’s devotion to his family and farm continues with his only niece, Beth and her husband, Art. In addition to his parents, Ransom was preceded in death by his sisters, Margaret Watkins Strickland and husband, J.C., Melba Hester Watkins; and by his brother, Bobby Lenwood Watkins and wife, Shirley. He leaves behind to cherish his memory his beloved niece, Beth Watkins Young and husband, Art; and his great niece, Kimberly Dupree and husband, Nicholas, and their children, Hailey and Landon. Flowers are welcome or memorial contributions may be made in Ransom’s memory to SECU Hospice House: 426 Hospital Rd, Smithfield, NC 27577; or to Middle Creek Primitive Baptist Church: 7009 Rock Service Station Rd., Raleigh, NC 27603. Condolences may be made to bryan-leefuneralhome.com