Mary E. Watkins-Tate

Mary E. Watkins-Tate, 81, of Richmond and formerly the Roanoke area passed away Tuesday, March 8, 2011 following a brief illness. She was born in Pulaski, a daughter of the late Walton Abbott and Lillie Akers Abbott and had been a Roanoke area resident for most of her life prior to moving to Richmond thirty years ago. She was employed as a cosmetologist with Estee Lauder and Miller-Rhoades from which she retired following twenty years of service. Her enjoyment of photography and growing flowers meshed together with several of her photographs of the flowers she grew being published in Birds and Blooms. She enjoyed sewing and loved to Facebook. She was of the Lutheran faith. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her first husband, George Lewis Watkins, who died in 1980. She is survived by her husband, Ralph Tate; a daughter, Mary Anne Robertson and her husband Randy of Roanoke; three brothers, Leroy Abbott and his wife Millie of Ridgeway; Bobby Abbott and his wife Elizabeth of Martinsville and Ronnie Abbott of Roanoke; two sisters, Louise Caldwell Meeks of Martinsville; Linda Light of Siler City, NC, her granddaughter, Annah Robertson of Roanoke, and a step grandson, Jimmy Tate and his wife Tina of Richmond. Funeral services will be held at 11AM, Saturday, March 12, 2011 in the Chapel of John M. Oakey & Son Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Sherwood Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8PM, Friday, March 11, 2011 at the funeral home. An online guest book is available for family and friends by visiting www.johnmoakey.com.