Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Watt, J. Clyde 1937
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net August 4, 2010, 6:53 pm

The Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Tuesday, July 6, 1937
Ionia county paid final tribute to the late J. Clyde Watt Sunday afternoon at 
services held at the home on Union street.  Clyde Watt, who was a well-known 
Ionia attorney, died early Thursday morning in his sleep of a sudden heart 
attack.  He had been a practicing attorney here for 40 years and was former 
Ionia county prosecutor and a member of the state legislature.

Rev. Paul L. Stewart officiated at the services.  His sermon likened Mr. Watt 
to noble Bible characters “that were willing to be used for the higher 
purposes of life.”

“There are many noble characters today of whom Cldye was one,” Rev. Stewart 
said.  In speaking of friendliness he said, “he loved people and showed 
himself to be friendly and his determination was always exhibited.  He lived 
victoriously.”

Foss O. Eldred, a member of the Ionia county and Ionia-Montcalm county bar 
associations, gave a brief eulogy in biography form.  He said in part “with 
determination to himself and real benefit to his community and state, he gave 
liberally of his ability, time and resources to public life and public 
service.  His was a social temperament.  With his manly grace and courteous 
kindliness he was an ever-welcome guest in any group or home.  His fraternal 
and social affiliations were numerous, ever always ready to do more than his 
share in any movement for the public good.  A man among men.

“Yet to him the law was his beloved mistress, ever a jealous mistress, and he 
knew it.  Hours of labor with his books and in court contending for the rights 
of his clients were not work but joy.  His success and the place he made for 
himself among us were but the rewards that come from ability, backed by 
ambition.

“Like those of our bar who have so recently passed from us, he stayed by his 
profession up to the day he died.  Heroically and under circumstances that 
would have conquered men of lesser fiber, he practiced day after day, knowing 
full well that any day might be his last.  Yet no complaint came from his 
lips; no impairment of his usual lovable disposition.

“Our hearts are sad.  A man we loved is gone.  Ever shall we cherish his 
memory; and ever, to us older lawyers at least, as we gather about the court 
room and at bar meetings, will there be a vacant seat, one that to us never 
can be filled.”

The members of the Ionia-Montcalm county bar association were the honorary 
bearers at the service and they included Harry Gemuend, Burton B. Sibley, 
Montgomery Webster, George E. Nichols from Ionia; from Greenville, C. B. 
Rarden and John Lewis; Belding was represented by Frank Donovan, and Lake 
Odessa by Charles Ernsberger; Dr. Harper Brady of Kalamazoo; J. Earl Brown of 
Lansing; R. K. Henry of Saranac, and N. J. Whelan of Lansing.

Active bearers were Thane Benedict, A. A. Rather, Dale K. Jepson, Foss O. 
Eldred, Ray A. Colwell and W. Y. Templeton.  Flowers were in charge of Mrs. 
Grace Elliott, Mrs. L. W. Stewart, Mrs. Ray Colwell and Mrs. Dale K. Jepson.

Rev. Adam Westmaas of the First Presbyterian church, assisted Rev. Stewart.  
Interment was at the family lot in Saranac.

Relatives and friends who attended from away were Mrs. W. H. Flint, Sr., Mr. 
and Mrs. W. H. Flint, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Fred Locke, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald 
Stewart and Mrs. Wilburt Simson, all of Perry, Mrs. George Heath of Detroit, 
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Cook, Ovid, and their five children, Jane, Billy, Norman, 
Douglas and Diane, Mr. and Mrs. John Seabrook of Grand Rapids, Mrs. John Welch 
and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Hopkins of Grand Rapids, Mr. and Mrs. J. Earl Brown of 
Lansing, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas J. Wheelan of Lansing, Dr. and Mrs. Harper E. 
Brady of Kalamazoo and Mrs. Ralph Atherton of Flint.


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