She is survived by a sister, Addie I. Omotoy of San Diego, CA; a niece, Doris Thompson, of Louisville, KY; and a nephew, Bob Watkins, of Atlanta, GA.
The family will receive friends between 3-6 p.m. Wednesday, August 15 at the Parham Chapel, Woody Funderal Home, 1771 Parham Road.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, August 16, in the chapel at Second Baptist Church, with interment in Westhampton Memorial Park.
She was a missionary to Nigeria in the 1940s and was employed by WMU of Virginia as a youth director for 35 years. After retirement from that post, she was employed by the Virginia Baptist Historical Society for 15 years. Also, she was a longtime member of Second Baptist Church.
Memorial contributions may be made in lieu of flowers to: the Virginia Baptist Historical Society at the University of Richmond.
When she was 16, Loretta Rees Watkins read spellbound the story of Scottish Presbyterian missionary Mary Slesser's work in Nigeria. She came to know that God wanted her to serve in Africa and determined "not if I go to Africa, but when I go to Africa."
After her parents died when she was a teen-ager, her pastor's wife became a second mother to her and encouraged her to become all that she felt God wanted her to be.
Miss Watkins, who would serve as a missionary teacher in Nigeria and serve Virginia Baptists for 50 years in various positions, died Monday of heart problems at her Henrico County home. She was 83.
A funeral will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at Second Baptist Church, 9614 River Road. Burial will be in Westhampton Memorial Park.
In 1944, the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign Mission Board appointed Miss Watkins as a missionary teacher in Nigeria. She taught at Iwo Baptist College and Nigerian Theological Seminary. She also served as principal of a large school at Ogbomosho.
Chronic malaria forced the end of her missionary service in 1948, much to her anguish.
"One day," she wrote in her personal testimony, "I came to see that the same God who had called me had also promised to lead me . . . maybe God hadn't called me there for a lifetime, and I started anticipating the next step. God is so good. He only promised one step at a time."
In 1947, Miss Watkins had met Blanche Sydnor White, the Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia executive secretary, who was visiting mission stations in Nigeria. When Miss Watkins returned to the states in 1948, Miss White remembered her, and Virginia WMU hired her as young people's secretary.
Miss Watkins held the young people's post until 1958, leading missions work with girls and boys. At various times until 1975, she led groups for all ages, including Sunbeams for little children, Girls' Auxiliary, Royal Ambassabors for boys, the Young Woman's Auxiliary, Acteens and Baptist Young Women.
From 1975 to 1983, she was an editorial research writer for Virginia WMU, producing promotional literature and the weekly WMU page in the Religious Herald, Virginia's Baptist newspaper. She also was a popular missions speaker and summer camp director.
"She touched the lives of thousands of young women," said her former employer, Dr. Fred Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. "From her telling of mission stories, many women found areas of service in the church. She would take children and teach them . . . and their children's children. Her walls are covered with pictures of other people's children."
After 35 years with WMU, Miss Watkins went to the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, serving as education assistant until she retired in 1998 at age 80.
Driven by a passion for historical research, she produced missions history material including booklets on women's history as well as the long friendship between Chinese Christians and Virginia Baptists.
She designed 35 panels of the Virginia Baptist History Mural painted by Sidney E. King at the historical society. The 36th and final panel was commissioned by the historical society to honor Miss Watkins' work and was a surprise to her.
She wrote three books: "They made it happen," "The House of Happiness," and "A Backward Glance: History of WMU."
A native of Oxford, Alabama, she earned a bachelor's degree from Howard College, now Samford University. She received a master of religious education degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Miss Watkins had been a member of Second Baptist Church since 1949.