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 Ariel Lavern Watson was born February 22, 1900 in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. She was the first of 9 children born to James and Bertha Rushton Watson. When she was young, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan. Of James and Bertha’s other 8 children, only Ariel’s brother Holly also lived to adulthood. Her other siblings died as infants of various illnesses and contagious diseases.
Ariel’s childhood was filled with the sadness resulting from the short life spans of 7 of her siblings. She did talk fondly of a time during her 9 or 10th year, when she joined her uncle Jack Wilson, the pipe major of the St. Thomas Pipe Band, and his daughter Bella, traveling to county fairs in Canada. Ariel and Bella danced the Highland Fling while the band played Scottish tunes. That happy time ended when Ariel was 12, and her mother died, possibly from complications of a 10th pregnancy. Ariel and her brother lived with her father for almost a year in Detroit, before an aunt took Ariel and her brother, Holly, back to St. Thomas to live with their grandparents. The children lived with Hiram and Eliza Schmachtenberger Rushton until after Eliza’s death in 1919 and Ariel’s marriage in 1920.
On April 7, 1920, Ariel married William Albert Billings, a widower with a 7-year old daughter, Ila Maxine. Ariel and Bill had 3 children of their own: Ariel Eileen (1921); George William (1923) and Jack Ramon (1925). In 1928, the family moved to Detroit when her husband transferred for his job at the Michigan Central Railroad. Maxine had married in earlier that year, and remained with her husband in Canada. Ariel and Bill lived in Detroit until his retirement in 1960, when they moved to Huron Beach, Ocqueoc, Michigan.
Ariel did office work when she was just out of high school and in the early years of her marriage, but after that, Ariel was primarily a homemaker. She learned to cook, clean, and sew when she lived with her strict, German grandmother. She became an expert with the needle, and continued sewing, knitting, and crocheting clothing for herself and her family all her life. She also enjoyed fine needlework and made doilies, afghans, tablecloths and bedspreads.
Ariel enjoyed her family. She cared for her grandmother from 1916 until her death in 1919, first when she was bedridden from a broken hip, then when she suffered from cancer. Ariel then continued to keep house for her widowed grandfather until the mid 1920s when he went to live with his daughter. Her brother Holly lived with Ariel and her family until his death from tuberculosis in 1930. Ariel’s saddest time was the loss of her own son, Jack, in World War II at Normandy Beach when he was just 18 years old. Daughter Maxine died in 1975 at age 64.
Ariel enjoyed shopping, dining out, parties, and going to the fireworks and other special events well into her 90’s, and was seldom content to sit at home. She was active in her church, baking and helping out with the Ladies’ Aid group. She also enjoyed bingo, but her main hobby was crochet work. She became a member of a craft group called The Dancing Hippopotamus. The group spent the winter months doing craftwork which they sold at a large fair in July of each year in northern Michigan. Ariel was an active member from its inception in 1970 to her death in 1995, creating and selling fine needlework until her failing eyesight made crochet impossible in her 90’s.
Ariel and Bill celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1970 with family and friends. Bill passed away in July, 1975. Ariel continued to live in her home on Lake Huron with the assistance of her daughter, Ariel, and remained active and healthy until her death May 30, 1995 at 95 years of age. |
