Obituary: Jenny Watson, 89

A COMMUNITY stalwart who worked hard for more than 60 years to improve life for pensioners in the Capital has died.

Tributes have flooded in for Jenny Watson, from Easthouses, who died at Liberton Hospital on August 27 aged 89.

Jenny had been involved with Scottish Pensioners’ Association’s (SPA) Easthouses and Mayfield branch since she was 24 years old, regularly organising entertainment outings and helping to throw the group’s well-attended Christmas party.

She also held the post of treasurer for the group for more than 50 years.

Jenny also found the ti me to start a local Girls Brigade group and a Weight Watchers group, and was a member of the Mayfield and Easthouses Gala Day Committee, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

The great-great-grandmother was described as “a character, a fighter and a strong person” by members of the community she left behind.

Robert Hogg, chairman of the Mayfield and Easthouses Community Council, said: “It’s a big loss to the community.

“She was always making sure everything was running right, a real community stalwart.”

“There was a big turnout at her funeral. She was very well known in the local community.

“Since she was a young woman she was involved in the Easthouses community through a lot of different things. And she kept that going as she got older, especially the pensioners’ association. And she kept helping out until she physically couldn’t.

“She never gave up, she was a character, a fighter and a strong person.

“She opened the gala day in 2012 and it was great, she got a tremendous response. It’s sad to see her go.”

Former SPA colleague and close friend Sheila Goddard said Jenny would be “sadly missed” by all who knew her.

The 68-year-old said: “She kept things ticking over in our SPA group, making sure members got what they were entitled to.

“She did a lot for the community, she would help anybody. She did a lot of important work.

“She was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the pensioners’ association and I think she also got citizen of the year. She will be sadly missed. It’s sad to see her go.”

As well as her work for the community Mrs Watson was matriarch to a loving family, which celebrated five generations of girls with the birth of the great-great-grandaughter Lillie in 2012.

Her late husband Jimmy joked that he had hoped for a boy but the couple had a daughter Rhona, as well as a grandaughter Jacqueline, and three great-granddaughters Jodi, Karrigan and Laura before the birth of little Lillie.