Jackie Watowa, 81, Atchison, Kansas died Tuesday, October 6, 2015, at the Atchison Hospital.

Funeral services will be Friday, October 9, 2015, at Trinity Lutheran Church at 11:00 AM with Rev. Robert Ziegler, officiating. Visitation with the family will be from 10:00 AM until time of the service at the church. Interment will follow in Mt. Calvary Cemetery.  Memorial contributions are suggested to the Atchison Hospital Auxiliary and the Trinity Lutheran Church and may be left in care of the Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home with whom the final arrangements have been entrusted.  Online condolences may be left at www.arensbergpruett.com.

Jackie was born in Washington, D.C., September 15, 1934, to John and Margaret Schoenthal Wyvel. She graduated in 1953 from Montgomery Blair High School, in Silver Springs, Maryland.

She married Bob Watowa of Atchison, on November 21, 1953, and they made their home in Atchison for 30 years and moved to Muscotah for three years and Topeka for ten years. Mr. Watowa preceded her in death on August 14, 1998. After Bob died she returned to Atchison.


Jackie helped her husband Bob on a farm North of Atchison for 13 years. She worked as her husband’s secretary for New York Life Insurance Co. for two years. She then went to work as a Real Estate Salesman for Pat Wilson for two years. She got her Broker’s license, and bought a Century 21 Real Estate Franchise in 1970. She operated that franchise for 22 years. She worked for the Bank of Horton for three years as an independent Insurance Agent for the bank. She moved to Topeka in 1989, due to her husband’s failing health, and lived there for ten years.  While in Topeka she continued to sell Real Estate. Her last three years in Topeka she was a secretary for the Kansas State Legislature.

She was a past secretary of the VFW Auxilary, President of the Atchison Business & Professional Women’s Club, Atchison Chamber of Commerce member, Atchison Pride’s Yard of the Week, a member of National State and Local Board of Realtors. Past Vice President and President of the Atchison Hospital Auxillary, She also served as a Shick Volunteer Counselor for the Senior Citizens that could not afford to purchase their medication. She was a member of Colly Creek Golf Club in Topeka, and enjoyed playing in golf tournaments in and around Topeka. She was appointed by the Northeast Kansas Agency on Ageing in Hiawatha, Kansas, to serve as “Atchison’s Silver Haired Legislator” for Atchison County for four years and Northeast Kansas Certifed Volunteer Ombudsman she was assigned to the Senior Village, and Vintage Park by James Grooms, her Ombudsman from the Governor’s office in the Capitol Building in Topeka, Kansas, and served on the Board of the Kansas Extension Service for Atchison County starting in January 2008. She was also a member of Trinity Lutheran Church.

Survivors include her four children, Mike Watowa, Topeka, KS, Linda Hester, Mississippi, Dennis Watowa, Atchison, KS, Steven Watowa, Tupelo, MS, her half-brother Captain Stephen Ricks, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, nine grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband Bob, her parents and a granddaughter.