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Shirley Watts, who was married to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie from 1964 till his loss of life final yr, has died after a brief sickness, in keeping with an announcement from her household. She was 84.
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The assertion reads: “It’s with nice unhappiness that Seraphina, Charlotte and Barry announce the loss of life of their much-loved mom, grandmother and mother-in legislation Shirley Watts. Shirley died peacefully on Friday December 16 in Devon after a brief sickness surrounded by her household.
“She will likely be additionally sadly missed by her sisters Jackie and Jill, and her brother Stephen. Reunited now perpetually together with her beloved Charlie.”
The couple grew to become an emblem of marital stability within the freewheeling rock world, whilst Charlie drummed for a band that was probably the most famously ribald band in music historical past. His low-key demeanor all the time contrasted with that picture, hardly ever extra so than in his home-loving habits — which to him all the time meant Shirley, whom he met in 1961 when each have been finding out on the Royal School of Artwork and married, initially secretly, three years later.
Marriage was a kiss of loss of life for pop stars within the early Sixties and Watts initially saved the nuptials secret even from his bandmates, who have been livid after they first discovered.
“He didn’t need the band to know as a result of he was fearful of Andrew and all that,’ stated longtime Stones bassist Invoice Wyman in Paul Sexton’s latest Watts biography “Charlie’s Good Tonight.” “So that they saved it secret for about three weeks, [then] the press launched it. He nonetheless denied it for the primary couple of days, after which he owned up and that was all proper.”
As for the general public, Wyman recalled Charlie being confronted by a reporter from England’s Each day Specific. “I emphatically deny I’m married,’ he replied. “It will do an excessive amount of hurt to my profession, if the story acquired round.” Nevertheless, Shirley determined to not lie. “We’ve needed to marry for a few yr, and simply didn’t dare,” she stated. “The months went on and we determined we couldn’t stay individually any longer. I’m terribly glad being Charlie’s spouse. It’s simply fantastic.”
Watts was hardly the heartthrob kind and the wedding was by no means a difficulty afterward. The pair suffered issues when Charlie battled substance abuse surprisingly late in his profession, through the Nineteen Eighties, however instructed Sexton a number of years later, “Now, fortunately, because of my spouse, I’ve stopped [using] every thing.”
Born Shirley Ann Shepherd, she studied sculpture on the Royal School of Artwork, the place she met Watts, who was finding out graphic design whereas additionally working as a part-time jazz musician. Their solely little one, daughter Seraphina, was born in 1968 and the household moved to a rural dwelling in Devon (and lived in France through the band’s tax-exile years), the place Shirley based a world-class horse farm. She grew to become a famend breeder and present particular person of Arabian horses.
“She is an unbelievable girl,’ Charlie is quoted within the e-book as saying of Shirley. “The one remorse I’ve of this life is that I used to be by no means dwelling sufficient. However she all the time says once I come off tour that I’m a nightmare and tells me to return out.”
Certainly, the household’s longtime buddy Tony King says within the e-book, “Shirley all the time saved him in line. He was by no means allowed to get too large for his boots if she was round. She would in a short time name it. She didn’t flinch about saying one thing to tug the rug from below his ft.
“I bear in mind she wrote me this good letter within the early days after they have been touring America, round Altamont time,” he continued, talking of the band’s galvanizing 1969 American tour.
“She stated, ‘Charlie got here dwelling on the weekend, stuffed with conceit about being a member of the Rolling Stones. So I made him clear the oven.”’
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