Noted former businesswoman Ida Johnson Watson dies

Ida Mae Johnson Watson lived by a simple motto, according to her family: "You love the unlovable. Those are the people who don't know how to love themselves."

Watson, a former businesswoman, died of cancer Oct. 25 at the age of 83.

Known affectionately as "Mu-dea," she was a native of Chestnut Hill near Tuscaloosa, and a longtime resident of Mobile.

Watson had worked for and later — with her late husband — became owner of the Watson/Waldolph Motel on St. Stephens Road and Pleasant Avenue in Prichard.

Diane Watson-Mack said that her parents fed the community, and her mother made a point of putting to work drug abusers, prostitutes and others whom typical employers might have shunned.

"She would take a drug addict and give them a job, even if it was just sweeping up," said Watson-Mack, who lives in of Douglasville, Ga.

Watson had a special affinity for young mothers, having lost her own parents as a small child. She would often help them and their children get furniture, her daughter said.

Even when Watson's husband, Ted, pointed out to her that some people might see her as an easy mark and take advantage of her kindness, she refused to be deterred, Watson-Mack said.

"That didn't matter to her at all," she said.

Watson led cleanup campaigns in the community — where many called her "Ma Watson" — and also stepped in to help those who were sick or just needed someone to pray with, her daughter said.

In 2001, Feb. 10 was proclaimed "Ida Mae Watson Day" by the Mobile mayor and City Council. The proclamation, sponsored by Councilman Fred Richardson, recognized her 75th birthday two days earlier as well as her many good works.

"My core has been snatched away from me. She was a remarkable woman," her daughter said.

Watson was a founding member of Christ Temple Apostolic Church, where she had served on the mothers board as president and treasurer.

She also was a member of the Semper Fidelis Federated Club for many years, where she was a former youth supervisor.

In addition to the daughter, survivors include nine more children, Bertha Edmondson of Inglewood, Calif., Annie Ruth Gamble of Nokomis, Fla., Donald Red Watson of Atmore, Guy Watson of Los Angeles, Jacqueline Watson of Fairburn, Ga., Linda Watson of Fayetteville, Ga., and Francine Reese, Octavia Watson and Louis Watson Sr., all of Mobile; one sister, Chinita Simon of Pensacola; one brother, Roosevelt Johnson of Los Angeles; 23 grandchildren; and 33 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be Thursday from 9 a.m. until the 11 a.m. funeral at Christ Temple Apostolic Church on Virginia Street. Burial will be in Lawn Haven Memorial Gardens. Arrangements are by Johnson-Allen Mortuary on Chestnut Street.