‘He was like a light.’ Friends remember Fort Worth father killed in I-35W pileup

Friends of Aaron Watson who awoke to the news of his death on Friday morning were immediately filled with memories of a man who had a sweet personality that could fill a room with light, with a rich country baritone that sounded a lot like Garth Brooks.

Watson, 44, of Fort Worth, was one of six people who died in Thursday morning’s 133-vehicle pileup on the icy I-35W near downtown Fort Worth. After the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office released his identity early Friday, some who knew him from his time at Navarro College in Corsicana took to Facebook to share tributes to a good friend who grew into a loving father, with a young daughter and young son.

Alyssa Dunnahoe, 47, of Corsicana, saw a post in a Facebook group for the choir group she had been in with Watson. She broke down into tears.

They met when they were both in the top choir troupes at Navarro in the mid-1990s. She arrived thinking of herself as “a big fish in a small pond,” she said over the phone Friday, but heard Watson belt Garth Brooks’ “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places” in a cowboy hat and realized he was the superstar. His deep singing voice, imbued with a country twang, led everyone to believe “he was going to be famous someday,” Dunnahoe said.

She formed a tight bond with him and others in the choir, and they would eventually spend long nights together at her mother’s cabin singing songs, or playing games, or just talking. Watson, she said, was always a caring and upbeat person to have around.

She said she kept up with him over the years through Facebook but, after Friday morning, began wishing she had spoken with him more, or had the opportunity to speak with him again.

He worked as a managing partner for Jason’s Deli in North Texas. His family became his pride and joy.

“He was like a light,” Dunnahoe said. “He had a big smile and a big heart.”

Friends of his couldn’t yet say on Friday where he was heading on Thursday morning when he became involved in one of the worst tragedies to ever occur on Fort Worth’s interstates. The medical examiner reported he died of multiple blunt force injuries.

As those close to him try to grapple with his absence from their lives, they are also trying to help the family he leaves behind. A page on the website Meal Train had raised $7,570 as of Friday afternoon and scores of people have volunteered to bring the family meals every day through March 31. Most wrote the family is in their prayers.

On Facebook, Jayda Herrera, who knew Watson through her job at Jason’s Deli in Grand Prairie, posted he would hop around from store to store. He was “a very nice man,” she wrote, who never became angry with his staff.

“It’s just very sad,” Herrera wrote in her post.

David Timmerman, 78, was Watson’s choir director at Navarro, and even recruited him when he was a high school student at Waxahachie High School who had a standout audition. His wife, Linda Timmerman, 74, was the academic dean at Navarro when he went to college and got to know him as a student and a choir member.

He was a popular guy in college, with no shortage of friends, and always kind and giving, the husband and wife remembered. He would help the tech crew build sets for the musicals, which he also starred in. He was one of the leads in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel,” opposite Dunnahoe.

He loved to sing country western songs, David and Linda said. He had a warm smile that rubbed off on whoever he was smiling at.

“Once you met him and he smiled at you — it was always one of those smiles you just soaked in,” Linda said. “You could just tell that he cared for everybody he came in contact with.”

The couple, who are retired from Navarro, have a stack of old photos of Watson from choir and from college shows, as well as VHS recordings of musicals. They were planning to get in touch with the college in the hopes they can share what they have and possibly digitize the video tapes.

Denise Kelly Wright, 44, of Fort Worth, knew Watson when she, too, was in the college choir in the mid-90s.

She remembers his beautiful singing voice, and how he comforted her when she was a freshman and was having a hard time being away from home.

“He was a very kind person and always seemed to care,” Wright said in a Facebook message. “He made me feel right at home.”