Aura Clay Watkins
Aura Clay Watkins, the youngest son of Rev. John F. and Laura Ann Watkins, was born at College Mound, Missouri, August 24, 1885.
He was converted when a youth, and was later sanctified wholly as a second definite work of grace. As a young man, he received the call to the ministry.
He received his early education at McGee Holiness College, in College Mound, Missouri. In 1902 he attended the Dakota Business College in Fargo, North Dakota. From 1910 to 1913, he was associated with his three brothers at this institution. Among the courses that he taught was penmanship. He wrote a beautiful hand, and his signature on a diploma graced it with exquisite artistry.
In the summer of 1913, Bro. Watkins, as he was known and called by all those who knew him, held a number of revival meetings in the West. He later recorded this tour in a booklet entitled "Pacific Coast Evangelistic Tour," published by Pentecostal Publishing Co., Louisville, Kentucky, 1914. I remember his telling me, when I was a student at KCCBS in the early 1940s, that the Library of Congress contacted him and asked him to send a copy to the Library. He told me this, with a merry twinkle in his eyes (as was his wont), and I could tell that this gave him a good measure of satisfaction. At the close of this evangelistic effort, he came to Kansas City, Missouri, where he lived for a time with his sister, May, and her husband, William H. Adkins. Some time after his move to Kansas City, he earned his A. B. degree from the Kansas City University.
In 1915 Bro. Watkins wrote and published (Kansas City, MO.) a treatise entitled "Entire Sanctification (The Obtaining and Retaining). He dedicated it to his parents, John F. And Laura A. Watkins, with the words "whose lives have meant most to me in obtaining this blessed experience." As he stated in the Preface, he wished to place in the hands of people "an inexpensive treatise on the main points as to how to obtain the experience of entire sanctification."
On November 8, 1916, he was married to Miss Bessie Beck of Miami, Oklahoma. The couple had three children: A. C. Jr., who died in 1925; James Francis Watkins; and Eleanor Beck (Watkins) Whitsett.
It may be mentioned here, that A. C. Watkins, representing the "Supremacy" group, and Ray L. Kimbrough, representing the "Sovereignty" group, the sons of ministers of the previous generation, led in the work of reconciliation that resulted in the reunion of the two groups in 1922.