Homer Robert Watkins, the son of Willard Benton and Ada Dumond Watkins,
     was born on April 2, 1918, in a little house northeast of Medicine Lodge,
     known as the House Place. Homer was the fourth child of a family of eight.
     His brother and sisters Ila Frances (1910-1945), Edward (1912-1914), 
     Marjorie Edith (1914), Amy (1916-1917), Leslie (1919-1920), Wilbur Benton
     (1921), and Ralph (1924-1924).
       In 1922 at the age of four, his parents bought their farm which is 
     located two miles east and 2 miles north of Medicine Lodge. This was his
     home for the rest of his childhood.
       Homer attended North Antelope Rural School for eight years. The school
     was very small, usually never having more than 8 students in all 8 grades.
     Homer was unlucky in that most of his 8 years in grade school he was the 
     only one in his grade. His teachers were Ella Funk, 1st. grade, Docia
     Stoops Scott, 4 years, Freda Nurse, 2 years, his sister Ila, 1 year.
       The 1928-1929 school year was a partiularly hard year for the Watkins
     family. Homer's father had polio as a baby, and it had left him with a
     crippled foot and leg. As he grew older his foot gave him more trouble.
     He knew he would be on crutches in a short time if something wasn't done
     to correct it. In the fall of 1928 he went to Wichita, where Dr. Bence
     performed bone surgery on his foot. In all, it took three operations to
     accomplish the correction. With his father in the hospital the farm chores
     became the responsibility of Homer, who was in the fifth grade and his 
     sister Marjorie, who was in the eighth grade. Their chores included milking
     14 cows, separating the milk, and feeding and caring for the cows, hogs,
     and chickens. This all had to be done in the morning before going to school
     and in the evening after school.
       Homer attended high school at Medicine Lodge and graduated in 1936. Being
     in the midst of the Depression, with money being very scarce, he worked a
     year around the neighborhood before going to college.
       Homer went to Fort Hays State College in the fall fo 1937 and graduated
     with a degree in Agronomy in 1941. Upon graduation, he moved to Wichita
     and worked at Boeing Aircraft Factory until entering the U.S. Air Force
     in 1943. Homer served in the South Pacific and was stationed on Tinian
     Island as an Airplane Mechanic and Flight Engineer. After the completion
     of the war, he was discharged in 1946.
       While in the service, he married Donna Mae Wagner of Wichita, formerly
     from Capron, Oklahoma. After returning from the service, he worked for the
     Soil Conservation Service at Wichita, Kansas. In 1947 Homer and Donna were
     transferred to Garden City, Kansas, and then transferred again in 1948 to
     Lakin, Kansas, where he is presently employed by the U.S. Soil Conservation
     Service.
       Homer and Donna have two children, Randall Dean (1949) and Pamela Jean
     (1952). Randall lives with his wife LeArta (Landes) in Derby, Kansas. Randall
     is a Computer Analyst with NCR Co. in Wichita, and LeArta is a Junior High
     teacher in the Derby School system. Pamela is a Medical Technologist in the
     lab at St. Catherine's Hospital in Garden City. Her husband, Morgan Gottsponer,
     is with the Northern Natural Gas Co. They with their year-old daughter, Katy,
     live in Garden City, Kansas.
       Homer and Randall are actively farming here in Barber County the farm on
     which Homer was raised.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 474 
     Submitted by: Homer R. Watkins