SPOKANE — Percy “Happy” Watkins, one of the founders of Spokane’s annual march honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a longtime voice in the civil rights struggle in Spokane, died Friday. He was 82 years old.

For decades, Spokane’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. He was known for making King heard while reciting King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Day parade. The annual reading tradition began as early as 1971; Just three years after King was assassinated.

“We are saddened to learn of the passing of Rev. Happy Watkins. Born in the Bronx, but a Spokanite at heart and soul since 1961, he served our community with a heart of gold and reads Dr. King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech that runs like clockwork every year.” It helped us remember the words of and at events throughout the year,” Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson wrote on Facebook.

Watkins was the longtime pastor of New Hope Baptist Church, leading the church from 1990 until his retirement in 2018. He and his close friend Ivan Bush, another prominent civil rights leader in Spokane, had been organizing the annual King march in Spokane for decades.

Born in the Bronx, Watkins came to Spokane in 1961 as an airman stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base. Watkins expressed surprise at relatively rural and white Spokane in a 2018 profile.

“I was 19 and a half years old and started crying… (I was told) about bears and harsh winters. I was destroyed,” he recalled at the time.

Still, Watkins found community in the church and soon called Spokane home.

During his more than 60 years in the city, Watkins worked as an insurance salesman, opened a barbecue restaurant, ran for city council, ran the local NAACP, married his wife Etta and raised four sons.

Spokane Superior Court Judge Breean Beggs said Watkins always had words of encouragement for him. Beggs is the former director of the Spokane Justice Center, which focuses on civil rights issues.

“To me, Happiness was the symbol of belonging in Spokane County. “He exemplified this more than anyone I know,” said Beggs, a former Spokane City Council president. “He made Spokane a better place.”

Steve Corker, who served eight years on the Spokane City Council from 2008 to 2011, said Watkins was like a “surrogate father” to him.

“I’m going to miss him,” Corker said. “He was a kind and good person and we need more of them. “He was willing to talk and bring people together, and we need more of that.”

Corker and Watkins were active in Democratic politics in the 1970s, Corker said.

He said Watkins mentored Corker when he was in his 30s and relatively new to Spokane and politics.