Adylee O. Watson, a talented painter who lived much of her life in East Aurora, New York, died October 8, 1996 in her home after a brief illness.  She was 85.

Mrs. Watson was born September 16, 1911 in Yuma, Arizona, the daughter of an Alaska gold prospector.  As a young girl, she grew up in southern California.  She studied art at Los Angeles Community College.  In 1933 she married Penn R. Watson, Jr. after a three-week, whirlwind courtship.  They returned to Watson's Buffalo home and in 1937 they bought and remodeled a home built in 1851 outside East Aurora.

Adylee began studying watercolor painting in the 1940s with Charles Burchfield at the Albright Art School.  Later, she studied abstract expressionism with Seymour Drumlevitch and Laurence Calcagno.  Her love of nature led her to capture in watercolors and oil the lakes and forest surrouunding her East Aurora home.  Her proudest accomplishment was being accepted by her peers into the Patteran Society of Western New York Artists.  She exhibited her work in a Patteran show at the Albright-Knox Gallery in November 1960.  She also had works displayed at the art gallery on several other occasions.

In 1950, she illustrated a children's book titled "The Shady Side of Skeeter" about a playful skunk who was afraid of his own shadow.  Also in the 1950s, she made woodcut, pen-and-ink Christmas cards, which were produced by her husband, then president of William J. Keller printing company.  Mrs. Watson later painted cards and postcards based on old Indian motifs in the 1980s that were produced by her son Penn R. Watson III, also a printer.

In the 1940s and 50s, she won numerous prizes for flower arrangements at the Erie County Fair and East Aurora Garden Club shows.  In 1955, she won the East Aurora mixed doubles Labor Day tennis tournament.  She also enjoyed golfing.

The Watsons moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1972.  She began acrylic painting while in Tucson and exhibited the paintings at the Rosequist Gallery and Tohono Chul Gallery.  She remained in Tucson three years after her husband's death in 1988.  The Watsons were married for 55 years.  She then returned to Buffalo and lived in Amberleigh Retirement Home in Amherst.

In addition to the Patteran Society, she was a member of the Saturn Club, East Aurora Country Club,. East Aurora Garden Club, Pen Women of Buffalo, and Oro Valley Country Club of Tucson.  Surviving, besides her son Penn, are another son, James O. of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; two grandsons; and two great-grandsons.

The Buffalo News, October 11, 1996