Obituary: Kimball Frease Watkins

February 27, 1932 – September 6, 2025

Kimball Frease Watkins, aged 93, died September 6th, in Glenwood Springs, after a short illness.

She was born Ann Kimball Frease, on February 27th, 1932 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. An only child, she moved around western Pennsylvania and, briefly, West Virginia, with her parents, the late James Rudolph Frease 3d, who was with the Baltimore & Ohio, and her late mother, the former Maxine Glenn Kibler.

Kim, as she was known by then, graduated from Punxsutawney High School, where, at 5 feet tall, she excelled in basketball and golf, coached by her wily grandfather, Roscoe Kibler, a card sharp and railroad hand, on sandy greens. She attended Wellesley, where she coxed crew and studied English, graduating magna cum laude in 1954.

She declined an offer to work for Joseph Welch, the attorney, becoming a trainee for Life magazine. She later interviewed, for long pieces she reported and wrote, subjects including Maria Callas and Leonard Bernstein, to the delight of her mother, who had studied voice and keyboard at Peabody. Her closest colleagues at Life were Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstadt, and Hugh Sidey. She gained some notoriety for chartering a helicopter to interview, dangling from a bosun’s chair, the survivors of the Andrea Doria sinking, standing on the deck below; she got the scoop. Grounded, she briefly, and without masthead credit, edited Sports Illustrated during the startup phase. She was a member of the Wellesley Club.

Kim, having driven from Greenwich Village in her ’54 racing green MG TD, met Richard James Watkins, who was completing his orthopedics residency, the introduction having been engineered by both sets of parents. They became engaged on the second date, after a panicked long-distance call to her mother: “you said yes, right?” After marriage in Fairmont, West Virginia, reported in the Times, and a long honeymoon trip during which he served as physician on a B.F. Goodrich plantation in Liberia, they settled in Wooster, Ohio, where he set up a solo practice while she adjusted to the loss of household staff and mongooses. When not golfing, she was busy in community affairs, including Thursday Club, Planned Parenthood and singing in the Wooster Chorus and at St. James Episcopal Church, where she served on the altar guild and as lay reader. She helped organize her 40th Wellesley reunion, and dabbled successfully in debt arbitrage during the Carter administration. She raised Welsh terriers and a son, who was born with the coroner in attendance, providing anesthesia, his service revolver on his hip.

She and Dick, as Dr. Watkins was known, skied, hiked, and climbed in Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the Alps. They toured the Rockies in a VW camper. Kim was also active in Snowmass Village—in real estate, helping organize the chapel, and serving on community boards, after the lifts had closed for the day. They were members of the Austrian Alpine Club (British section).

Recently, Kim, having, in the interests of REAL ID, formally changed her name to the one she’d used since the 30’s, has been living in Glenwood Springs, with her rescue dog, Abel, out-putting staff on indoor turf (her short game had always been strong); she found the putter more sporting than a cane.

The MG threw a rod in 1958, predeceasing Dick, whom she loved at least as much, by 50 years. Along with Abel, Kim is survived by her son, James, a physician, and granddaughter, Amy, a student.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Wellesley College.

Kim will be missed by lovers of: sharp writing, red editor’s ink, William Safire’s columns, any number of dogs who could sense a soft touch, and her family.

A service will be at St. James Episcopal Church, in Wooster, Ohio October 3rd at 10 AM.