Dad

Born in Tulsa

In 1931, at the height of the depression, Watkins' parents packed their belongings and drove west with two small daughters. In Tulsa, his mother went into labor, and he was born. His family reached California when he was three months old.

Jim Watkins' sisters are:

• Jane M. Gill, 72. She worked for Winners Circle in various capacities from 1982 until retirement in 1995. Passed in Oceanside, California.

• Judy Crider, 68. A retired dress designer, Passed in San Clemente, California.

Their mother, Rowena McKenzie Watkins, 95, graduated from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and taught mentally disabled elementary-school students. Passed in Laguna Hills, California. "My mother was sharp as a tack," says Watkins. Their father, William Watkins, was a graduate of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. He published a newspaper in Chillicothe, Missouri, with his brother, Irving. In California, William Watkins opened a service station. Later he owned, for two decades, a Seaside Oil Company gasoline-product distributorship that provided fuel for central California's citrus smudge pots and agricultural vehicles. Later still, he bought a lumber yard.

Sister Number 1

Kathleen O. "Kit" Leeger, AIA, 41, is an architect with Island Architects West and the wife of developer and construction consultant A. Scot Leeger. When Kit was young, Jim and Carol decided to adopt other children and asked her if she would like a younger brother or sister. "She first said a little brother, then a sister, and later she said she'd rather have one of each,"

"After two years of trying to adopt, Carol learned about a Jewish organization, Infants of Prague, that coincidentally had newborn twins placed by a mother who wanted her children raised as Christians. The agency wanted to place the babies in a foster home and investigate us for six months. I sat there playing with the babies and thought they should be at home with us. In the best sales job of my life, I started to convince the agency director to let me take the babies home. He said no and gave me every imaginable bureaucratic reason why we couldn't. While I played with the babies, he left the room to talk to another client. He returned and asked me, "How I was sure my wife would want the babies? After all, Carol had not seen them. In fact, she did not know I was at the agency." Watkins knew the director was tiring, so he telephoned Carol, explained where he was, and asked her to bring two bassinets.

The twins are

• James M. Watkins Jr., 38, a San Diego Police Department detective. For his 21st birthday, as a surprise for his father, Cliff Watkins legally changed his name to James M. Watkins Jr. "The gift made me cry," says Jim Sr.

• Kris M. McCubbin, 38, of Ramona, California. She and her husband, Michael T. McCubbin, an engineer with Icon Network, are the parents of five children: Derek J., 14; Gia M., 13; Kendra R., 12; Emily C., 18 months; and Russell J., 4 months. Kris played U.S.Tennis Association tennis in high school and college but was never ranked. Today she coaches tennis.

Sister Number 2

The second biological child, Karen Charisse "K.C." Vafiadis, 32. She and her husband, Christopher Vafiadis, have a five-year-old son, Christopher James or "C.J." In the 1980s, K.C. and her partner, Dwayne Greenleaf, were the tenth-ranked national ice-dancing team. Now a skating judge, K.C. is working to fulfill the requirements to judge skating in Olympic and international competition.