Hilton Flave Watts

Hilton “Flave” Watts, age 89 of Gatesville, passed away on Sunday, May 25, 2025 at his home near Turnersville, which was the place he called home for many, many years.

Celebration of Life services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 21, 2025 at the Turnersville Community Center. Refreshments will be served followed by a short eulogy by immediate family members at 3:00 p.m.

Flave was born on March 20, 1936 in the rural community of Gatesville, Texas to the late Nobel Hilton and Edith Mary Watts. The simple pleasures that brought him joy consisted of dipping his bare feet in the sand at South Padre Island, riding his motorcycle on warm spring days, tending to his pet donkeys, growing Uncle Babe’s famous cantaloupes in his garden, and eating at the “all you can eat buffet” in Las Vegas. These adventures brought him a big smile on a grand scale. He could even be found listening to light jazz music on the Public Broadcasting Station and watching an Audie Murphy movie such as “A Boy From Texas,” while preparing his favorite meal of a baked sweet potato.

Flave served in the United States Marine Corp. He signed up at the age of seventeen as a patriot to fight in the Korean War; and although he didn’t see actual combat, he had no regrets in making the decision to support freedom. He was also a fireman for the Killeen Fire Department, and lastly, he worked several Civil Service jobs at Ft. Hood, Texas.

Although he was a man of few words, Hilton Flave Watts will always be remembered for his dry sense of humor and quick wit, stories about his childhood, and catchy phrases, such as, “For cryin’ out loud,” “Good Grief!” and “There’s no place like Texas!”

He is survived by two siblings: Georgia Guderyahn and Jerry Watts; four children: Yevette Haskins, Lisa Seaman and her husband Tony, Neel Watts, and Barbara “Nikole” Tatum and her husband Scott; and nine grandchildren: Chandler “Robbie” Seaman, Georgia “Britt” Seaman, Avery Seaman, Chelsea Tatum, Scout Key, Gracie Key, Aston Watts, Kaitlin Tatum, and Jeremiah Tatum.