Daughters learn father died in floodwaters
Tiffannie and Ta’Quana Watson hadn’t spoken to their father in 15 years. They were both teenagers then, but they already knew he had been through some difficult times.
As adults, they had tried to find him, pursuing leads that would send them on a path of heartache. Tiffannie sometimes would hear that he was working somewhere in Houston, but by the time she reached someone at that location, he had moved on.
On a stormy weekend in October, Kelvin Watson’s body was discovered on a downtown highway underpass, one of two people swept away in floodwaters that ravaged Houston. Authorities said the 55-yearold man was homeless.
The sisters said Monday they were not surprised to discover that their father may have been living on the streets. They said he was never the same after the death of his mother.
“He took it real hard,” said Tiffannie Watson, 32. “He was her favorite.”
She said her father was a strong-willed man who didn’t want to take handouts from anyone and that demeanor may have contributed to his way of life.
“He just kind of lost himself,” Tiffannie Watson said Monday, the same day of her father’s funeral.
Kelvin Watson was born in the West Texas community of Crane, south of Odessa, and worked in the oil field for most of his life, the daughter said.
He and the girls’ mother had divorced. They had three daughters — the eldest now lives in California. Charlene Tipton is 33. Ta’Quana Watson is 31.
For much of the 15 years of her father’s absence, his own father helped raised the three girls, said Tiffannie, the middle child.
The sisters remember their father as a good man, and Tiffannie said he was good-looking, too, adding with a chuckle that he was a bit of a ladies man.
Watson’s body was found about 5 a.m. Oct. 31 at 2300 St. Joseph’s Parkway. Witnesses told police he appeared to have been swept away by high water in a location prone to flooding.
About 11 a.m. that same day, police found the body of Maria Diego-Martinez in a ditch in the 1900 block of Bering Drive.
Nine hours earlier, she was westbound in the 6300 Beverly Hill Street when she lost control of her vehicle and struck a fence, police said. The vehicle went through the fence and into Bering Ditch. The vehicle floated in the water, eventually coming to a stop at a bridge near Richmond Avenue. She and her husband got out of the vehicle, police said. He tried to get help and she stayed on the roof of the vehicle, police said.
About 30 minutes after the crash, the man flagged down a passing motorist, who telephoned for help.
He returned to the bridge, but his wife and the vehicle were gone.
The vehicle was found a short distance away, police said, pushed up by the water.
The body of the 30-yearold woman was recovered in the ditch, after water had receded, police said.