Shirley Watts, who was married to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie from 1964 until his death last year, has died after a short illness. She was 84.
Shirley died peacefully on Friday December 16 in Devon after a short illness surrounded by her family.
The couple became a symbol of marital stability in the freewheeling rock world, even as Charlie drummed for a band that was the most famously ribald band in music history. His low-key demeanor always contrasted with that image, rarely more so than in his home-loving habits — which to him always meant Shirley, whom he met in 1961 when both were studying at the Royal College of Art and married, initially secretly, three years later.
Marriage was a kiss of death for pop stars in the early 1960s and Watts initially kept the nuptials secret even from his bandmates, who were furious when they first found out.
As for the public, Shirley decided not to lie. “We have wanted to marry for about a year, and just didn’t dare,” she said. “The months went on and we decided we could not live separately any longer. I’m terribly happy being Charlie’s wife. It’s just wonderful.”
Watts was hardly the heartthrob type and the marriage was never an issue afterward. The pair suffered problems when Charlie battled substance abuse surprisingly late in his career, during the 1980s, but told Sexton several years later, “Now, luckily, thanks to my wife, I’ve stopped [using] everything.”
Born Shirley Ann Shepherd, she studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art, where she met Watts, who was studying graphic design while also working as a part-time jazz musician. Their only child, daughter Seraphina, was born in 1968 and the family moved to a rural home in Devon (and lived in France during the band’s tax-exile years), where Shirley founded a world-class horse farm. She became a renowned breeder and show person of Arabian horses.
The family’s longtime friend Tony King says in the book, “Shirley always kept him in line. He was never allowed to get too big for his boots if she was around. She would very quickly call it. She didn’t flinch about saying something to pull the rug from under his feet.
“I remember she wrote me this brilliant letter in the early days when they were touring America, around Altamont time,” he continued, speaking of the band’s galvanizing 1969 American tour.
