Floyd Watson

1934 - 2024

Floyd (Jerry) Watson

September 1, 1934 - August 1, 2024

Floyd, who went by Jerry most of his life, died peacefully with family by his side on August 1, 2024. Jerry was born in Santa Maria to Floyd H. and Betty Watson. He was a lifelong resident of the Santa Maria Valley, growing up on North Benwiley Avenue when, as he said, the street was unpaved and dirt at the time."

Jerry attended local grade schools and later Santa Maria High School where he excelled in football as well as track & field. At that time, he held quite a few county and school records in multiple track & field events. To this day he still holds a hurdles record at Santa Maria High. After attending and competing in football and track & field at Allan Hancock College, Jerry's athletic accomplishments led to a scholarship to play football at Whitworth College in Spokane Washington, but an injury and feeling a 'little homesick' brought him back home to play football at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Following his time at Cal Poly he married Ginger Moore, and they had three children. Jerry began his working career at Davey Tree surgery with such local legends as Gordon Roinestad and Bailey Hudson, his lifelong buddies, luckily before the creation of Cal OSHA as their families were not sure safety was a priority for any of them at that time, although Jerry said his first real job was pulling weeds in Casmalia for fifty cents a day. Spending his afternoons sweeping out the butcher shop in the Benwiley Market after he would get out of grade school eventually lead to him to being a journeyman meat cutter for almost 30 years, working at Williams Bros, Joeys Market and finally Safeway. He also was an excellent Mason, often doing side jobs on the weekends, and many of his projects have survived until this day. He had a love of truck driving and after his meat cutter career he began a new career as a transfer truck driver for various local trucking businesses including Gary Silva Trucking followed by Union Asphalt, where he would retire several times. He would 'un retire' a final time to teach truck driving at Allan Hancock for several years. Jerry loved to fish and hunt and would make yearly trips to the Eastern Sierras to fish and Tulelake to hunt, often taking family and friends with him. He was still hoping to go fishing up until his passing. Jerry loved music and dancing, with big band or jazz music being his favorite. He even danced on his 89th birthday! You could often find Jerry having coffee with his buddies in the afternoon to discuss the day's events. His favorite locations were the 5th Wheel Cafe, Ricks Rancho, Pappy's and the Pantry to name a few. Our dad was unselfish in many ways helping others, sometimes strangers, his whole life with things like changing a tire or buying food or clothing. He taught us some great life lessons. Jerry was preceded in death by his parents and older brother, Jim. He is survived by his daughters Robin (Jay) Patton, Dana (Bob) Lewis and son Jerry (Dayna) Watson, grandchildren Stephanie (Matt) Oliver, Jana (Gregg) Rice, Ian Lewis, Mitchell Lewis, Gage Watson and great grandson Kody Woeste. The family would like to give a big thanks to Dignity Hospice for the wonderful care and support he received in his final days.

A Celebration of Jerry's Life will be held on Saturday, October 5th, 2024, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the American Legion, 145 W. Clark Avenue in Orcutt.