Barbara Watkins Lee

LEE, Barbara Watkins (Proctor Woodroof) passed away on January 20, 2019, at the age of 87, peacefully in her home in Sandy Springs. The only child of Brig. Gen. Robert L. Watkins and Susan Shadburn Watkins of Decatur, she was a graduate of Washington Seminary, class of 1948, with the distinction of being the only pupil in the history of the school to have attended all twelve grades. She received her B.F.A. from Wesleyan Conservatory in Macon and following was a teacher at Washington Seminary and its successor The Westminster Schools through 1956. She married the late Dr. Ernest Earl Proctor in 1954, and the couple relocated to Newnan in 1958, where Dr. Proctor was a prominent physician in the PAPP Clinic until his death in 1970. In addition to rearing three children, she was active in the community, holding officer positions in the Newnan Junior Welfare League, the Driftwood Garden Club, the Red Cross Staff Aide Corps., the Newnan Playmakers, the Coweta Concert Association, the Coweta County Federation of Republican Women, and the Georgia Federation of Republican Women. In 1965, she was the first Republican candidate for the Newnan Board of Education in its history. Following Dr. Proctor’s death, she remarried the late Charles Brannen Woodroof of Newnan and the couple relocated to Sandy Springs. In 1991, she served as the class-action representative plaintiff in the suit which set aside the count-wide property tax reassessments and established the board of equalization appeal process, represented by her attorney son Robert J. Proctor. She is survived by her children, Robert J. Proctor and his wife Teresa Davis Proctor; Richard E. Proctor, a business executive in Denver, Colorado, his wife Tegan Ward Proctor, and their children, David Proctor and Thea Proctor; and Evelyn Proctor, also an attorney. All three children graduated from The Westminster Schools. She was interred at Decatur Cemetery in a private service. The family expresses its profound appreciation for services provided by Visiting Angels of Roswell and Encompass Home Health & Hospice. Contributions in her memory may be made to The Westminster Schools.
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