Shirley Watts, who was married to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie from 1964until his death last year, has died after a short illness, according to astatement from her family. She was 84.
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The statement reads: “It is with great sadness that Seraphina, Charlotte andBarry announce the death of their much-loved mother, grandmother and mother-in-law Shirley Watts. Shirley died peacefully on Friday December 16 in Devonafter a short illness surrounded by her family.
“She will be also sadly missed by her sisters Jackie and Jill, and her brotherStephen. Reunited now forever with her beloved Charlie.”
The couple became a symbol of maritime stability in the freewheeling rockworld, even as Charlie drummed for a band that was the most famously ribaldband in music history. His low-key demeanor always contrasted with that image,rarely more so than in his home-loving habits — which to him always meantShirley, whom he met in 1961 when both were studying at the Royal College ofArt and married, initially secretly, three years later.
Marriage was a kiss of death for pop stars in the early 1960s and Wattsinitially kept the nuptials secret even from his bandmates, who were furiouswhen they first found out.
“He didn’t want the band to know because he was scared of Andrew and allthat,” said longtime Stones bassist Bill Wyman in Paul Sexton’s recent Wattsbiography “Charlie’s Good Tonight.” “So they kept it secret for about threeweeks, [then] the press released it. He still denied it for the first coupleof days, and then he owned up and that was all right.”
As for the public, Wyman recalled Charlie being confronted by a reporter fromEngland’s Daily Express. “I emphatically deny I am married,” he replied. “Itwould do a great deal of harm to my career, if the story got around.” However,Shirley decided not to lie. “We have wanted to marry for about a year, andjust didn’t dare,” she said. “The months went on and we decided we couldn’tlive separately any longer. I’m terribly happy being Charlie’s wife. It’s justwonderful.”
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Watts was hardly the heartthrob type and the marriage was never an issueafterwards. The pair suffered problems when Charlie battled substance abusesurprisingly late in his career, during the 1980s, but told Sexton severalyears later, “Now, luckily, thanks to my wife, I’ve stopped [using]everything.”
Born Shirley Ann Shepherd, she studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art,where she met Watts, who was studying graphic design while also working as apart-time jazz musician. Their only child, daughter Seraphina, was born in1968 and the family moved to a rural home in Devon (and lived in France duringthe band’s tax-exile years), where Shirley founded a world-class horse farm.She became a renowned breeder and show person of Arabian horses.
“She is an incredible woman,” Charlie is quoted in the book as saying ofShirley. “The one regret I have of this life is that I was never home enough.But she always says when I come off tour that I am a nightmare and tells me togo back out.”
Indeed, the family’s longtime friend Tony King says in the book, “Shirleyalways kept him in line. He was never allowed to get too big for his boots ifshe was around. She would very quickly call it. She didn’t flinch about sayingsomething to pull the rug from under his feet.
“I remember she wrote me this brilliant letter in the early days when theywere touring America, around Altamont time,” he continued, speaking of theband’s galvanizing 1969 American tour.
“She said, ‘Charlie came home at the weekend, full of concept about being amember of the Rolling Stones. So I made him clean the oven.”’
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