Post by huxbux on Sept 22, 2006 10:32:29 GMT -5
OUTDOORS
90-year-old hunter a straight shooter
Katie Barringer Watson has had lifelong love affair with outdoors
TOM HIGGINS
There's no denying that some sportsmen like to hunt because, in part, it makes them feel macho.
Those who fit into that category probably aren't going to enjoy this column.
Today's article shoots to shreds the idea that hunting is mainly an endeavor for men.
For entering a ninth decade now, a woman continues to be one of the most ardent and successful hunters in North Carolina.
She's Katie Barringer Watson, who lives near Richfield on the border of Cabarrus and Stanly counties. Although Watson was born Sept. 26, 1915, the celebration of her 91st birthday is scheduled for Saturday, the 23rd, with dozens of family members and friends attending. The party will be at Wesley Chapel Methodist Church's Fellowship Hall.
However, this isn't the date Watson , her eyes sparkling, said she's anticipating most.
That would be Nov. 4, when the muzzle-loader season for deer opens in the state's central section.
"I didn't get to go deer hunting last fall and winter because I was sick with shingles," said Watson, who recovered in time to hunt wild turkeys in the spring, bagging two large birds that fell for her call.
"I really missed it, and I became very crabby. I can't wait to get back out there in the woods on my property and climb into my tree stand again."
A tree stand she built, 15 feet up in an oak, when she was in her 80s.
Watson grew up as the youngest of Charlie and Maggie Barringer's 11 children.
She and a brother, Woodrow, who was three years older, developed a special love for the outdoors as youngsters. They spent hours in the fields and forests of the rolling Piedmont countryside near their home.
"I remember getting my first doll for Christmas when I was 6 years old," Watson said. "I was disappointed. I wanted a knife."
Watson said she and Woodrow first hunted with slingshots they made, then with air rifles and, finally, as teenagers, with .22 rifles and shotguns.
"We hunted mainly small game -- rabbits, squirrels and quail -- because there weren't many deer and turkeys around at that time," she said.
Watson enjoyed other sports as well. She starred in basketball all four years she was in school at Richfield High.
During World War II, with most of the country's men in military service, Watson took a man's job as a "fixer" of machinery in a Concord textile plant.
She was secretly wed for seven years, a marriage that ended in divorce. Some time later she wed a widower, Paul Ross, who shared her passion for hunting and fishing.
Ross died of lung cancer shortly before their sixth anniversary.
About two years later, she married Jack Watson, another outdoors enthusiast.
"We had a lot of happy years together, hunting and fishing," she said. "During this time I really got into quail hunting. I raised and trained my own pointers.
"Over a span of several years I bagged the season limit of 100 quail every time."
Watson's nephew, Calvin Barringer of Richfield, said: "She's probably the best wing shot I've ever seen. Most dove hunters average bagging about four birds per box of 25 shells. She averages about 10."
The Watsons' happiness was tempered by Jack's developing medical problems, spinal troubles and heart attacks. Tragically, he took his life in 1989.
A grieving Watson finally found some solace in a familiar, beloved place -- the outdoors -- hunting and fishing every chance possible.
As an angler, she takes special delight in catching big bream and shellcrackers from farm ponds around her home while using a fly rod. She also frequents spots on the S.C. coast at Cherry Grove Pier.
Restoration projects by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission eventually returned deer and wild turkey to the Richfield area in good numbers, and Watson started hunting them with intense passion.
She shot her first turkey at age 86 after walking a cable across a creek to get to the hunting area.
However, whitetail deer are her favorite game.
"I've bagged approximately 75 deer in my life, 26 of them since I turned 80 years old," Watson said. "In 1993 I killed two deer with one shot -- a large doe and a button buck that was standing behind her."
Watson said her best deer is an 8-point buck whose antlers had an 18-inch spread. She shot it on her land in 1994.
Watson also field dresses, cuts up and packages her venison.
"And I've been told that I can cook some mighty good meals of deer," she said.
Watson also reloads her ammo and maintains the ATV that she rides from her home into the woods to hunt.
"I came over to see Aunt Katie a while back, and when I got out of my truck I heard a banging noise out behind the house," Calvin Barringer said, chuckling. "I found her under that ATV, working on some part."
Watson explained:
"I needed to get it tuned up, 'cause before too long my very favorite day of the whole year will be here," she said.
That would be Nov. 11, of course, opening day of the regular gun season for deer in the state's central counties.
Tom
Higgins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special correspondent Tom Higgins is a retired Observer staff writer.
90-year-old hunter a straight shooter
Katie Barringer Watson has had lifelong love affair with outdoors
TOM HIGGINS
There's no denying that some sportsmen like to hunt because, in part, it makes them feel macho.
Those who fit into that category probably aren't going to enjoy this column.
Today's article shoots to shreds the idea that hunting is mainly an endeavor for men.
For entering a ninth decade now, a woman continues to be one of the most ardent and successful hunters in North Carolina.
She's Katie Barringer Watson, who lives near Richfield on the border of Cabarrus and Stanly counties. Although Watson was born Sept. 26, 1915, the celebration of her 91st birthday is scheduled for Saturday, the 23rd, with dozens of family members and friends attending. The party will be at Wesley Chapel Methodist Church's Fellowship Hall.
However, this isn't the date Watson , her eyes sparkling, said she's anticipating most.
That would be Nov. 4, when the muzzle-loader season for deer opens in the state's central section.
"I didn't get to go deer hunting last fall and winter because I was sick with shingles," said Watson, who recovered in time to hunt wild turkeys in the spring, bagging two large birds that fell for her call.
"I really missed it, and I became very crabby. I can't wait to get back out there in the woods on my property and climb into my tree stand again."
A tree stand she built, 15 feet up in an oak, when she was in her 80s.
Watson grew up as the youngest of Charlie and Maggie Barringer's 11 children.
She and a brother, Woodrow, who was three years older, developed a special love for the outdoors as youngsters. They spent hours in the fields and forests of the rolling Piedmont countryside near their home.
"I remember getting my first doll for Christmas when I was 6 years old," Watson said. "I was disappointed. I wanted a knife."
Watson said she and Woodrow first hunted with slingshots they made, then with air rifles and, finally, as teenagers, with .22 rifles and shotguns.
"We hunted mainly small game -- rabbits, squirrels and quail -- because there weren't many deer and turkeys around at that time," she said.
Watson enjoyed other sports as well. She starred in basketball all four years she was in school at Richfield High.
During World War II, with most of the country's men in military service, Watson took a man's job as a "fixer" of machinery in a Concord textile plant.
She was secretly wed for seven years, a marriage that ended in divorce. Some time later she wed a widower, Paul Ross, who shared her passion for hunting and fishing.
Ross died of lung cancer shortly before their sixth anniversary.
About two years later, she married Jack Watson, another outdoors enthusiast.
"We had a lot of happy years together, hunting and fishing," she said. "During this time I really got into quail hunting. I raised and trained my own pointers.
"Over a span of several years I bagged the season limit of 100 quail every time."
Watson's nephew, Calvin Barringer of Richfield, said: "She's probably the best wing shot I've ever seen. Most dove hunters average bagging about four birds per box of 25 shells. She averages about 10."
The Watsons' happiness was tempered by Jack's developing medical problems, spinal troubles and heart attacks. Tragically, he took his life in 1989.
A grieving Watson finally found some solace in a familiar, beloved place -- the outdoors -- hunting and fishing every chance possible.
As an angler, she takes special delight in catching big bream and shellcrackers from farm ponds around her home while using a fly rod. She also frequents spots on the S.C. coast at Cherry Grove Pier.
Restoration projects by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission eventually returned deer and wild turkey to the Richfield area in good numbers, and Watson started hunting them with intense passion.
She shot her first turkey at age 86 after walking a cable across a creek to get to the hunting area.
However, whitetail deer are her favorite game.
"I've bagged approximately 75 deer in my life, 26 of them since I turned 80 years old," Watson said. "In 1993 I killed two deer with one shot -- a large doe and a button buck that was standing behind her."
Watson said her best deer is an 8-point buck whose antlers had an 18-inch spread. She shot it on her land in 1994.
Watson also field dresses, cuts up and packages her venison.
"And I've been told that I can cook some mighty good meals of deer," she said.
Watson also reloads her ammo and maintains the ATV that she rides from her home into the woods to hunt.
"I came over to see Aunt Katie a while back, and when I got out of my truck I heard a banging noise out behind the house," Calvin Barringer said, chuckling. "I found her under that ATV, working on some part."
Watson explained:
"I needed to get it tuned up, 'cause before too long my very favorite day of the whole year will be here," she said.
That would be Nov. 11, of course, opening day of the regular gun season for deer in the state's central counties.
Tom
Higgins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special correspondent Tom Higgins is a retired Observer staff writer.
