20 Facts About Emmett Watson

Emmett Watson was an American newspaper columnist from Seattle, Washington, whose columns ran in a variety of Seattle newspapers over a span of more than fifty years.

Emmett Watson was a tireless advocate, through his column as well as through a fictional organization he created called Lesser Seattle, for limiting the seemingly unbridled growth and urban renewal that dramatically altered the city's landscape during the second half of the twentieth century.

Emmett Watson suffered an ear infection as a child that permanently damaged his hearing.

Emmett Watson attended West Seattle High School before transferring to Franklin.

Emmett Watson enrolled at the University of Washington and played baseball for the Huskies under head coach Tubby Graves.

Emmett Watson played very briefly with the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League, amassing one hit in a total of two at-bats.

Emmett Watson often blamed his lack of success in professional baseball on his inability to hit a curveball.

Emmett Watson graduated from the university in 1942 with a bachelor's degree in communications.

The newsletter brought him to the attention of an editor at the Seattle Star where Emmett Watson was hired to cover the Rainiers in 1944.

Emmett Watson initially wrote a sports column at the P-I.

Emmett Watson denounced urban renewal plans aimed at flattening Pioneer Square and radically altering Seattle's Pike Place Public Market.

Emmett Watson was the founder and leader of "Lesser Seattle," a parody of Greater Seattle, Inc.

At The Seattle Times Emmett Watson continued to write his column in the style that had made him a well-known fixture of Seattle journalism.

Emmett Watson periodically wrote about the group in his column from 1957 to 1997.

Emmett Watson periodically suggested actions that KBO members could take to make "immigrants" uncomfortable, and, hopefully, encourage them to leave.

Readers and others occasionally observed that it was all a sort of joke; Emmett Watson sometimes responded that people could think what they liked, but that he would continue to promote the KBO as one way to deal with the decrease in the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest and especially in Western Washington.

Emmett Watson sold his share of the Oyster Bar to Bryant in 1987.

In March 2001, Emmett Watson underwent surgery for an abdominal aneurysm at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle and died of complications from the surgery on May 11 at the age of 82.

Emmett Watson was called "one of the greats" by contemporaries Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle and Jimmy Breslin of the New York Daily News; he considered himself a protege of Caen's.

Emmett Watson wrote four books and received the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists' Western Washington Chapter in 1998.