THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120191
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Seven months have passed since Resident Superior Court Judge Thomas S. Watts died unexpectedly in Elizabeth City. But for a memorable hour on Friday he again presided over the Pasquotank County Courthouse.
Watts' presence was vivid in the memories of state and federal judiciary members and nearly 200 Albemarle friends who gathered to unveil a portrait of the late jurist in his former courtroom.
``We turned to him often for the unbounded joy of his company,'' said N.C. Appeals Court Judge John B. Lewis Jr. of Pitt County, a long-time friend and fellow ham radio operator.
Appropriately, laughter punctuated Lewis' eulogy.
Watts could be a stern and demanding judge, but he was never without an exquisite sense of humor that supported him during a lifetime of physical handicap and pain. Watts often needed two canes to walk because of a nerve and muscle disability caused by the inherited hemophilia he suffered since childhood.
The 55-year-old jurist died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage at his Rivershore Road home in April.
Lewis recalled that Watts was fiercely proud of his Scottish heritage and lived for moments when bagpipes skirled at Gaelish gatherings and he could expose his frail legs in the kilts of his clan.
``Once we were at Grandfather Mountain,'' Lewis said, for a Scottish reunion. ``We encountered two men who must have been at least seven feet tall, dressed in Viking outfits with skins draped around them, large shields, helmets with horns, full red beards and carrying huge swords and spears as they towered over him and me.
``Tom looked up at them and said, `Have you ever thought about being bailiffs??' ''
The portrait of Watts was painted by Maxine Sweeney, a nationally known artist who lives in Elizabeth City - next door to the courthouse.
Sweeney painted the late judge standing by his bench in the courtroom where he presided when sitting in Pasquotank County. Behind him in the picture is a portion of the intricate paneling that is an architectural feature of the courtroom.
``The shade of the painted panels was hard to match - it's sort of mustard-and-gold,'' Sweeney said.
``Just like Tom,'' said an attending judge.
When Judge J. Herbert Small of Elizabeth City, a retired former resident Superior Court judge who gave Watts his first job as a young lawyer newly graduated from Wake Forest University, rose to supervise the ``hanging of the portrait,'' according to the program, he added another chuckle to the occasion.
``I know you're all wondering how I'm going to get up there to hang this portrait,'' said Small, pointing to a newly installed hook at least 15 feet above the floor.
``I'm not,'' explained Small, preserving decorum in the absence of a ladder.
The picture was later installed by a courthouse attendant, and the image of Watts again looked out over his familiar courtroom, the faintest trace of a smile on his lips.
Also attending were Judge Terrence W. Boyle of Edenton and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of N.C., and Janice McKenzie Cole, chief federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of North Carolina, who lives in Perquimans County. Her husband is N.C. District Court Judge James Carlton Cole.
Others from the N.C. Supreme Court and Appeals Court who came to honor Watts included Judge Sarah Parker; Judge Jack L. Cozart; Judge Sidney S. Eagles Jr.; Judge Willis P. Whichard; Judge Lewis B. Meyer Jr.; Judge Betsy McCrodden, and Judge Burley B. Mitchell Jr.
Before being elevated to the Superior Court bench, Watts was district attorney in the 1st Judicial District and he is credited with shaping the courtroom character of a whole generation of Albemarle lawyers.
Watts hired the most promising of the young attorneys as prosecutors, and they included the current district attorney, Frank R. Parrish, and his predecessor, H.P. Williams Jr.
Another former assistant district attorney who was a Watts protege is D. Keith Teague, now an Elizabeth City attorney. Teague helped arrange the 1st District Bar Association ceremony and introduced the widow and immediate family of Watts.
Lewis said Watts made a choice ``unexcelled by its wisdom and multiple benefits'' when he married the former Marguerite Peters, a Virginian, shortly after graduating from Wake Forest.
Peggy Watts is widely known as a horticulturist and is often consulted by N.C. political and judicial leaders on matters of public policy.
Judge J. Richard Parker of Manteo, the present Resident Superior Court Judge of the 1st Judicial District, formally presided over the ceremony after the court was called to order by Pasquotank County Sheriff Davis M. Sawyer Jr.
Lewis was introduced by Judge Jerry R. Tillett, a Manteo attorney who often practiced in Watts' court before he, too, was named to the Superior Court. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Judge Thomas S. Watts died last April at his home.
by CNB