Carrie Elizabeth Watson

Carrie Elizabeth Watson was born in Berwind, West Virginia to the union of Reverend and Mrs. James Cooke, Sr. She was the fourth child of twelve children. She committed her life to God at the age of twelve while attending church with her family at the Rose of Sharon Baptist Church. There, she taught Sunday School, Jr. Mission Bible Study, and won many prizes, including first place in Bible quizzes. She went to Kerr Grade School, Excelsior High, and Bluefield State.

She moved to Portland, Oregon in 1983 and joined Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in 1985 where she was a Sunday School teacher, a teacher for Youth Mission, and president of the Mother’s Board. She also visited the sick and shut-in and was on the prayer team.

For more than forty years she dedicated her time working with children and teen moms and was affectionately known as Grandma Carrie at the Multnomah County Foster Grandparent Program where she cared for premature infants, children with disabilities, and children who have experienced abuse or neglect.

She leaves to mourn five sisters: Norma Millner, Gloria Brown, Mary Hamilton (Winzel), Mabel Pitts, Essie Johnson (Ed), two brothers Lester Cooke (Betty) and Harold Cooke; a host of nieces and nephews, and her five children: Sydney Roy Watson, II (Vonda), Cheryl Baker (Kevin), Trisa Kelly, Dyan Watson, Renée Watson; grandchildren: Sydney Roy Watson, III, Joshua Watson, Nicholas Watson (Alyssa), Ashley Watson, Tobias Kelly, Sydney Rae Kelly, Caleb Watson and Nehemiah Watson; and two great grandchildren: Nicholas James Watson, Jr and Nora Jane Watson.

She was preceded in death by her parents, James E. Cooke and Roberta Cooke, her brothers James E. Cooke, Jr., Eugene Cooke, Anthony Cooke, and her sister Naomi Wright.

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