Wilkie Davidson Lady

The Long Journey Home for The Chile Lady

Wilkie Davidson was born a coal miner's daughter in Gamble Mines, near Carbon Hill in Walker County, Alabama on July 18,1928 to Henry Clayton Davidson and Willie Lee Harbin.

Wilkie reveled in telling stories of her childhood and love for her parents, and of being a great-great grandmother.

When she was around five years old, in search of the next coal mining job, her family moved from Alabama to Madrid, New Mexico. From Madrid, they moved to Chinle, Arizona. From Chinle, they moved to Shiprock, New Mexico. Their final move was to Fruitland, New Mexico where her father was foreman of Indian Mine and later operated his own mine, Hogback No. 13, on the nearby Hogback Mountain.

With her marriage to Warren Ratliff, she moved to Farmington, New Mexico where Warren was the manager for Mountain Bell Telephone. Subsequently with their son, Randy, and their daughter, Kimberly, in tow, they moved to Bloomfield, New Mexico Blanco Plant, where Warren went to work for El Paso Natural Gas. They welcomed another daughter, Melody. From Blanco Plant they moved to Flagstaff, Arizona with El Paso Natural Gas Company. From there the family moved to Belen, New Mexico. Warren, changing employment to White Sands Missile Range moved the family to Las Cruces, New Mexico. With continued employment at White Sands, the family finally arrived in El Paso, Texas, a place Wilkie could finally call home, and which she grew to love.

Wilkie worked for Safeway stores as an accounts payable clerk for many years. Her last long term employment was for a child psychiatrist. She became active in civic organizations and her church with Camino de Luz and Greeter ministries.

In her last few years, her favorite pastime was driving to Hatch, New Mexico to bring home a variety of fresh Hatch green chile, then another drive to bring home a variety of fresh red chile. Some of the green chile would be roasted then cut up while another variety would be packaged for chile rellenos. The red chile would be prepared as bright red enchilada sauce. She would then gift her packages of green and enchilada sauce and repeat the process the next harvest. When her son, Randy, and daughter-in-law, Roberta, would visit Wilkie, an insulated cooler was always necessary to return the precious cargo to Austin.

In the Fall of 2022, with declining health and advanced years, and with much angst at leaving her beloved El Paso, she moved to Austin to live with her son Randy and her daughter-in-law Roberta.

Her heart always remained in El Paso. She mentioned, that from her patio, she could see three states and two countries. She will finally return to her beloved El Paso, to be buried in her Earthly home, next to her daughter, Kimberly. Her soul departed on October 16, 2025. We wish her all of God's Infinite Blessings in her Heavenly home.

She is preceded in death by her parents, all of her siblings, both daughters, Kimberly Curlin, and Melody Dominguez, and her grandson, Collin Dominguez, and her ex-husband Warren Ratliff.

She is survived by her son, Randy Ratliff and daughter-in-law Roberta Ratliff, her grandchildren, Clay Ratliff and Travis Ratliff, her sons-in-law, Ron Dominguez and Bruce Curlin, her grandchildren, Kimmel Rodriguez and Kamera Baca, and numerous great grand children and great-great grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.

Our infinite thank you to our dear son, Clay, for always engaging with, and compassionately seeing to the needs of his beloved grandmother.

With great gratitude to the entire Altus Hospice team of Nicole, LaShonda, Sarah, Jacob, Kourtney, Jennifer, Thomas, and Kara for their excellent care.

Thank you to Father Dean, Father Luan, Deacon Manuel, and Deacon Mike, of Saint John Neumann Catholic Church, for their constant blessings.

Infinite thanks to our dear Austin friends, Stephen and Susan Hurd, who have been by our side for thirty two years. June and Harlan Cooper, Mitch and CC Moore. Ruthann and Jacob Abraham, James and Marti Caswell, David and Christy Rockwood, Bob and Brenda Woody, and Rusty and Mindy Clark, and Joe and Beth Woods.

Gracious thank you to Carol McPhaul, a dear, and loving friend of Wilkie's, as well as the Ratliff family.

Thank you to Wilkie's El Paso friends, Bob and Carolyn Niland, Yvonne Lucero Capioldi, Jim and Margaret Caylor, and Gloria.

Heartfelt thank you to our out-of-town friends, who always managed to visit despite the miles, Wendy Wooten, Karin Natowitz, and Sherrye Lewis.

Gratitude to Wilkie's nephew, T Davidson, for always staying in contact.

A profound debt of gratitude to my brother in law, Bruce Curlin, for graciously providing the burial plot for Wilkie, and taking point for the El Paso affairs, and his sister in law, Donna Curlin, for managing the funeral at First Baptist Church in El Paso.

A special thank you to Paul Williamson, Rose De La Fuente, and Daniel Lopez, of Harrell Funeral Home, for their superior service and genuine compassion.

Thank you to the El Paso Martin Funeral Home staff.

A special thank you to Dr. Mark Rotramel, Elvin Porflit, Dr.Edgardo Martinez and the staff of First Baptist Church, El Paso.