Success Is Relative for Man Who Sought Birth Mother

A few years ago, Costa Mesa jeweler Michael Watson started a cute little contest for schoolchildren in which he gives away jewelry to winners of essays titled “Why Mom Deserves a Diamond.” In a recent column I ran something written by one of the winners.

What I didn’t know: At the time Watson created this contest, he was deeply involved in a 20-year search to find his own mother. And since then he’s found her--or found out about her.

While his quest has led to more than a little heartache, Watson has also found nearly a dozen relatives he didn’t know he had--including a grandmother, two brothers, and a sister who is his spitting image. It’s taken him three reunions to finally meet them all. Now the search goes on.

“I still have one sister to go,” Watson said. “I’m not going to give up until I find her.”

Many times missing family members manage to find each other because both sides are searching. Not so in Watson’s case.

“I wasn’t a missing sibling, I was more like a ghost,” he said.

Watson was born in Indianapolis to Betty Price; he was the third of her five children. But he never left the hospital with his mother. He’s since learned that Betty Price told everybody else in the family that he was stillborn. None of them knew to even look for him, because they assumed he didn’t exist.

Watson was raised by wonderful adoptive parents in New Albany, Ind. (By coincidence, I lived in New Albany several years myself, and it turns out Watson and I lived on the same street.)

“My [adoptive] mother let me know very early about my background; she called me her ‘little adopted angel,’ ” Watson said.

Watson knew only three facts about his real mother: that her name was Betty, that she was 22 when he was born, and that she had lived on Delaware Street in Indianapolis.

“From those three facts I’ve been able to find my family, though it took a very, very long time,” he said.

The first person he found was his maternal grandmother, Hattie Stewart, in 1994. He called her at her home in tiny Coatsville, Ind. Watson learned from her that his mother, Betty, had died in 1981, from complications related to a life of alcoholism.

“She lived a very hard life,” his grandmother told him. But he did learn from his grandmother that he had all these brothers and sisters.

“Finding my mother had always been the focus of my search. I had no idea at all that I had any siblings,” he said. “This was all a great deal to absorb, but I was elated.”

It was Labor Day weekend 1994 that he finally met his grandmother back in Indiana, along with several aunts and uncles. And it was Labor Day weekend 1995, at a reunion they all vowed to have, that he met his two brothers. (They simply lack enough knowledge about their backgrounds to know if he and any of his siblings have the same father. Watson is convinced he’ll never know who his father was.) It was just last month--the week of the Fourth of July--that he finally met his sister Suzie.

“She was in her yard [in Indianapolis] when I walked up,” he said. “I knew it was her because she looks just like me.”

There’s a byproduct to Watson’s efforts: His brothers and his sister, who did know each other growing up (raised mainly by aunts and uncles), had gone their separate ways over the years. Now, through him, they’ve reunited. “I’m the common denominator,” Watson said with pride.

Watson knows only three facts about his still missing sister: Her name (Debra Kay), her date of birth (three years before him), and where she was born. But then, he’s already shown what he can do when he’s got three facts to work with.

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O’ Henry: The debate continues in the O.J. Simpson civil trial: Will Dr. Henry C. Lee, the forensic scientist credited with helping bring about Simpson’s acquittal, testify at the civil case? (Remember the prosecution’s failure to overcome--at least in the jurors’ minds--Lee’s observation about the police case: “Something’s wrong.”)

But while the two sides argue about him, Lee is going about his business--attending a forensic science conference at Cal State Fullerton on Monday. Lee was one of the principal speakers at the event. But it wasn’t generally open to students. The fee for the weeklong conference is $1,495. Lee’s topic, by the way: DNA collection, preservation and analysis.

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Bill & Bobbing Along: Bill and Bob enjoyed the Orange County Fair so much they decided to stay. They were part of a six-oxen team on display during the recent fair. When the fair ended, officials paid $4,000 to keep them (including yoke) for the fairgrounds’ Centennial Farm. They are the farm’s first oxen.

Bill and Bob began life as a young Maine boy’s 4-H project. From there they moved on to Ohio, Kansas and Missouri. They should be good around children: One of their previous gigs was living at a petting zoo.

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Wrap-Up: I’ve always thought the search for one’s natural parents might be hardest of all for the adopting parents. Watson says that was true in his case. The mother who raised him, Martha Velia Watson, did not understand his obsession. “She was a wonderful mother. I love her dearly,” he said. “The only explanation I could give her was: I need to know where I came from.”

A few months after he first met his grandmother and some aunts and uncles, he heard, with great relief, from Martha Watson: “I’m ready to share you now.”

Sadly for Watson, it isn’t likely he will ever know why his real mother put him up for adoption. “There’s so little that I’ve been able to learn about her. Why did she tell everyone I was stillborn? Only she could answer that.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823, or by fax to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.