Charles R. Watts came to Medicine Lodge as an Engineer for Best Brothers'
     Keene's Cement Company. This was probably about 1915. His home was Austin,
     Texas.
       Leona Tyrell and her mother followed other family members from Fontana,
     Kansas, to Medicine Lodge in 1909. Her father and brother, Robert and
     Charles Tyrell, and also her sister and husband, Ralph and Bessie Sheldon,
     were living here. She worked in the Rural Telephone Exchange and Trice
     Mercantile Company.
       Charles Watts and Leona Tyrell were married July 15, 1917. They traveled
     by train to Colorado and other western states on their honeymoon.
       Charles Tyrell Watts was born July 24, 1918. The family was very happy.
     At Christmas time they went by train to Austin, Texas to visit Charles'
     parents and sisters to show off their baby son. On the way home, the train
     was stalled in a snow storm. They had difficulty keeping warm. Charles took
     the dreaded influenza and by the time they arrived home, he had pneumonia.
     He died January 9, 1919.
       Leona devoted herself to her baby son. Her mother lived with her, and 
     Leona went back to work for Trice Mercantile. In 1920 Leona built her home
     on West Kansas Avenue. Her brother, Charles Tyrell, did the cement and
     plaster work in the house.
       "Little Charles" was his mother and grandmother's pride and joy but his
     life was cut short too. He was stricken with Scarlet fever and developed
     complications which resulted in his death March 24, 1928.
       Leona had a rough time following her son's death. She attended Cosmetology
     School in Wichita and opereated a Beauty Shop for annabel Crook in the basement 
     under the offices of Bob Gilmore Abstract and Insurance.
       In 1941 Leona opened Watts' Beauty Shop on the west side of Main Street.
     About ten years later she opened a shop in the basement of her home on West
     Kansas Avenue. Health problems forced her to retire in the early fifties.
       Despite all her troubles and frief, Leona remained a cheerful and useful
     person. Throughout the years, she devoted much time to the Methodist Church
     and Sunday School. She was active in BPW and enjoyed many friendships. Her
     friends often called her by her youthful nickname, "Fussy." Pearl Russell,
     Arvilla Garten, and Julia Harbaugh are the only living members of a Birthday
     Club consiting of Leona, Rose Murphy, Bertha Wilson, Marian Knight, Gladys
     Gibson, and Vera Hammond.
       Leona died January 7, 1972, and is buried with her family in Highland
     Cemetery, Medicine Lodge.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 476