MRS. ORA WATKINS JONES's Obituary
Mrs. Ora Lee Watkins Jones, 85 of Detroit, Michigan, passed away quietly, surrounded by family on Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
Ora was born to the union of Marie Watkins and Superintendent Phillip Watkins Sr. on March 28, 1935 in West Helena, Arkansas.
Ora, attended Eliza Miller High School in West Helena, Arkansas. She came to Detroit with a doctor who brought her and two others with him from St. Louis, Missouri to work at Receiving Hospital through Wayne University. It wasn’t long before Ora began singing with Dr. Mattie Moss Clark who was the organist and choir director over the Southwest Michigan Choir in 1957, at her then church Bailey Cathedral Church of God in Christ. Ora recorded three songs, lending her powerful vocals to “Climbing up the Mountain”, “Live Holy to See the Lord”, “Oh Sinner, and You Can’t Hide from God”, three songs she led received Gold. Ora enjoyed singing with Dr. Clark whom she was very close to, and she called her adopted sister. Ora served as an executive cabinet member with the International Music Department, during Dr. Clark’s administration.
In 2015 Ora was bestowed the Michigan Southwest First Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction COGIC Lifetime Achievement in the Fine Arts Award, she was a Legendary State Choir Soloist. She was also honored for her lifetime of service and musical excellence to her Local church, Jurisdiction, and the International COGIC Music Department, as well as the world.
Ora’s 2015 was filled with great accomplishments, illness, and the loss of her husband Clifton Edward Jones. Her testimony is that she was diagnosed with cancer, her nephew Prophet Jeff Diggins, let her know that God was going to turn it around, and He did just that without any chemo or radiation. In an interview she said, “God healed me, I’m still singing, and I’m still Climbing up the Mountain, it gets hard sometimes, but I’m still climbing”.
Ora, affectionately known as “Aunt Ora” to many and G-Mom to her grandsons, leaves to cherish her memory her daughter Viola Jones (Anthony) Slaughter, of Platte City, MO, along with two grandsons, Purnell and Pierre, a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, family, and friends.
Also surviving are her sister Ruth (Superintendent Samuel L.) Diggins of South Bend, IN, her brothers Harold Watkins, Bishop John H. Sheard and Otis (Ethelrine) Sheard all of Detroit MI, and the extended Sheard family, Sisters-in-law Betty Watkins, Shirley Watkins both of West Helena Arkansas, and Shirley Watkins of Saginaw, MI.
Ora was preceded in death by her husband Clifton Edward Jones, their daughter, Nicole (Nikki) Marie Jones who passed away as an infant, her parents, Superintendent Phillip and Marie Watkins, bonus father Superintendent Offie Sheard, brothers, Phillip Watkins, Jr., Joseph Watkins, Charles Watkins, Milton Watkins and sisters, Geraldine Jennings, and Lois Staggers, Sister-in-law Willa Mae Sheard.
Weep not for me though I am gone into that gentle night.
Grieve if you will, but not for long upon my soul’s sweet flight.
I am at peace, my soul is at rest there is no need for tears.
For with your love I was so blessed for all those many years.
There is no pain, I suffer not, the fear now all is gone.
Put now these things out of your thought, in your memory I live on.
Remember not my fight for breath remember not the strife.
Please do not dwell upon my death, but celebrate my life.
__Constance Jenkins
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