Paula Watkins Zellner, MD

Paula Watkins Zellner, MD, beloved humanist, physician, and artist, died suddenly on the morning of August 14th after an accidental fall on a beach walk with her husband that caused a rapid, painless intracerebral hemorrhage. She was in good health and good spirits. Her death is a shock to her family and friends.

She was born just after Christmas on December 27, 1954, to John and Alice Watkins in College Station, Texas.  She grew up the eldest of five children in Monterrey, Mexico, where she learned fluent Spanish that would serve her throughout life.

During her childhood, she excelled academically and thrived at classical piano and ballet. She then enrolled at Carleton College in Minnesota where she majored in biology and minored in visual arts. She returned to Mexico to attend medical school at the University of Monterrey before finishing her clinical studies in New York. 

There she met the love of her life, Eric Gordon Bryan Zellner, a fellow medical student.  They embarked together on residencies in New York: she in radiology at Winthrop University Hospital and he in physiatry at New York University, Rusk Institute. She married Eric in 1981 and had her first daughter, Elizabeth Gordon Zellner, in 1983.

The Zellners came south to Fayetteville, North Carolina to pursue their medical careers in 1985. She gave birth to her second daughter, Diana Denton Zellner, in 1986. In Fayetteville, Paula was active in Carolina Regional Radiology, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Highland Country Club, the Fayetteville Botanical Garden, the Arts Council of Fayetteville, Fayetteville Academy, and Terry Sanford PTA, as well as numerous charitable and civic organizations.

Paula saw beauty in the world around her and marveled at the wonders of nature, art, and architecture. She retired from clinical practice to pursue her artistic aspirations and to spend more time with her family. She supported both her daughters as they also graduated from medical school and went on to careers in surgery and medicine. An excellent chef, she readily fed her family and friends with incredible hospitality, and she instilled family traditions we will always cherish.  She was an accomplished artist in jewelry, glass, and ceramics, and continued to develop her skills through art courses at Penland School of Craft, Brookgreen Gardens, and Corning Museum of Glass.   

She often spent time with her family at Ocean Creek in North Myrtle Beach. In 2011, she and Eric built a house on the Waccamaw River in Conway, SC. Following Eric’s retirement in 2019, they officially moved to South Carolina and split their time between the river house and the beach. At the coast, she enjoyed the water, boating, nature, bird watching, and sunsets. Paula and Eric were married for 43 years and thought they would soon celebrate a golden anniversary. 

Paula graciously welcomed Liz’s spouse Hudson to the family in 2016 and Diana’s spouse David in 2020.  Nothing brought her more joy than her grandchildren, Rowan (5) and Hugh (3). She lived the last years of her life in her second renaissance--traveling, creating art, and caring for her grandchildren.  With her husband, she visited six continents.  She especially loved the quaint cafes of Paris, beaching with an elephant in Phuket, and going on safari in South Africa. She saw Mt Fuji in Japan and the pyramids at Giza, hiked Manchu Pichu, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, fished in Alaska and Panama, visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art too many times to count and roamed the wild moors of Scotland.  On her most recent trip this spring, she enjoyed touring Wales, Dubai, and the Taj Mahal.   

Paula will always be remembered for her joie de vivre, her ready smile, her warm heart, and her delicious meals.  She lived a rich and fulfilling life that will forever be celebrated by those who had the privilege of knowing her.  She is survived by her husband Eric, a retired physiatrist in South Carolina, her daughter Elizabeth (Hudson), a pediatric craniofacial plastic surgeon in Westchester, New York, her daughter Diana (Dave), an internist specializing in palliative care in Portland, Oregon, her grandchildren Rowan and Hugh, her mother, Alice, her sister Sharon, her brothers Mike and Bill, and her much beloved extended family. She is reunited with her father, John, and sister, Linda, “where the sidewalk ends.”

Paula was the matriarch of a close-knit family that spread from coast to coast. Her ashes will be lovingly added to the Atlantic, Pacific, Columbia, Hudson, and Waccamaw in place of a single ceremony. She is leaving a big hole in many hearts. We will always love her.

Dr. Zellner is entrusted to Kelvin Lewis, the funeral director, and the Lewis Crematory & Funeral Home staff of Myrtle Beach, SC.

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