Lu Gene Watkins was born in Preston, Idaho, the daughter of Leo Leslie and Evelyn Edwina Wakley Watkins. She was a member of the class of 1946, however she passed away in 1945, before graduating.
Two sisters, Eva Lee Watkins, 18, and Lu Gene Watkins, 18, were victims In a double drowning tragedy, that occurred Wednesday evening, August 1, 1945 in Bear Lake, at Lakota Beach. The body of Lu Gene was found in shallow water near the Swan Creek channel at a point where it enters the lake proper, at about 10 a. rn. Thursday by Patrolman Evan Green of the Utah State Police, who happened to be boating in that area. On Identification of the body, a general search was instituted for the missing sister. The second body was found Friday at 11:40 a. rn., in about ten feet of water in a channel, and at a distance of about 125 feet southwest from the point where that of the younger girl was found Thursday morning. The popular young sisters, with Helen Schmid and Barbara Peterson, were vacationing at the resort, having arrived there near 5 p. m., Wednesday. The girls began preparing a chicken dinner, but before it was served, Eva Lee and Lu Gene ate a small portion and said they were going swimming. They left the cabin at about 6 p.m., and went to the beach wearing bathing suits under their clothes. Their outside clothing was found the next day on a pile of sand near some weeds. Some 15 minutes after the sisters left the cabin, Miss Schmid went to the beach, where she talked with the Watkins sisters, who were wading in the sloping, sandy-bottom beach which takes off from the perking lot constructed this year by the Lokota management. When invited to join them, Miss Schmid said she would later and returned to the cabin where she, Miss Peterson, 1st Lieutenant Donald Nate, and Lloyd Phelps, RM- 3/c, had dinner. Later Miss Peterson and Lieu-tenant Nate went swimming. Not seeing the Watkins sisters, the bathers they had finished swimming and had joined other young couples and girls who were coming and going at the resort. Prior to this, sometime near 7 p. rn., Mr. and Mrs. King Loveland of Ogden reported they saw two girls wading quite a distance tromi shore. The Lovelands intended to bathe, but decided not to, beause of the wind and waves. Lu Gene could swim about 15 feet, while Eva Lee was unable to swim at all.
Search for Eva Lee's body was carried on Thursday by Sheriff Ben Weston of Rich county, as well as by the Lakota management, and groups from Montpelier and other nearby communities. The body of Eva Lee was discovered by James L. Gwilliam, field executive of Cache Valley Council, who was with an encampment of Boy Scouts near Lakota. Word was passed to E. B. Wuthrich, George P. Stock and Sheriff Alton Gunderson, members of the organized Montpelier searching group, under the direction of S. C. Kelsey, who went to the scene in a boat, where they recovered the body. This is the fifth drowning to occur in Bear Lake since 1941. On August 1, 1941, Mr. and Mrs. E. H. MeAffee of Salt Lake drowned when their boat was swamped in a storm while returning across the lake to Fish Haven. Their daughter, the third member of the boating party, saved herself by clinging to the boat for 19 hours before being rescued. Loa Lee Findlay, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Grant Findlay, drowned August 21, 1944, while swimming at the Fish Haven resort, where Fish Haven creek empties into Bear Lake.