Mabel Rose “Skip” Watts died at her home in Cleveland Heights, OH, on September 30, 2016 after a brief illness. All eight of her children were at her bedside.

She was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, on April 6, 1930 to Herbert Spencer and Rose Lagan Crowther. Her father was an executive buyer in the early days of the F.W. Woolworth Company in New York City. Skip graduated from Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY with a degree in chemistry. After graduation, she declined a prestigious job offer at Bell Laboratories to care for her beloved but ailing father.

Mabel Rose became Skip Watts when she married Ridley Watts Jr., a bad boy from a good family in Short Hills, New Jersey. Her name, Skip, was Ridley’s honorary moniker that recognized her sailing prowess. United by a profound love of the sea, Skip and Ridley were married for 49 years of creative escapades, and together created eight children who then produced 12 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Soon after they married, they moved to Cleveland, Ohio to start their family but regularly returned to the visit the sea during long summer vacations at Westhampton Beach and Nantucket Island. For many years, they toured first the Great Lakes, and then the Atlantic Coast from Nova Scotia to New York, aboard the family boat Northern Light, an 87-foot motor-sailing ketch. Docked at Rhode Island, the family often crewed on Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution excursions to study whales.

Skip and Ridley hosted many parties at their home on Fairmount Boulevard in Cleveland Heights. Skip put her own elegant touch on the Tremaine-Gallagher House, a mix of Second Renaissance Revival and the Beaux-Arts Classicism architectural styles, built around 1914. Their home was the site of the first Fairmount Jazz Festivals in the early 1960s, an organization founded by Ridley — but whose parties were organized and run by Skip. Jazz greats who played at their home included Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, and Earl “Fatha” Hines.

Between raising eight children and arranging fund-raising galas, Skip became an active leadership participant (often as a board member or trustee) of many Cleveland organizations, including:

Glen Oak High School (Gates Mills, OH; 1969-1982; then merged with Gilmour Academy) – Skip was one of three founders of this ecumenical school via the Religious of the Sacred Heart

Gilmour Academy (Gates Mills, OH) – Honorary Lifetime Trustee
The Cleveland Play House (former President of the Womens Club)
The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Institute of Art (Advisory Board Member 1982-88; and 1994 – present)
Fairmount Jazz Festival – with husband Ridley Watts
WVIZ/PBS Televised Auction (former Auction President)
The Carmelite Guild
New Directions (former Board Member)

Skip’s membership in local social organizations demonstrated her deep pursuit of learning and knowledge, and her appreciation of fun-loving friends:

The Intown Club (former President 1994-96
The Social Study Club of Cleveland
Shaker Heights Investment Trust
Various book clubs
Girl Scouts (former troop leader in Cleveland Heights – 1960s)
Ikebana International – Cleveland chapter 
Chagrin Valley Hunt Club (member)
Cleveland Skating Club (former member)

Finally, she was a volunteer at the Hospice of the Western Reserve, which in turn provided Skip with hospice care in her final days.

Children’s names and birth years:
Barbara 1954
Ridley 1956
Mary Stuart 1957
Kathryn 1959
Patricia 1960
Elizabeth 1962
John 1970
Philip 1971