Watkins was born in Louisville, Kentucky, or possibly Lexington, Kentucky. She was born on July 27, however, her birth certificate does not exist in Kentucky state records and several different years have been suggested. Watkins' father was a minister and she an only child. Her family moved to
Crawfordsville, Indiana and at age 11 she received local notice for putting on a play she wrote, "Hearts of Gold", which made $45 for charity (about $1600 in 2025 dollars). At
Crawfordsville High School she started a newspaper and was active in clubs. She attended a total of five colleges (including
Hamilton College (Kentucky),
Transylvania University,
Butler College (Indianapolis), and
Radcliffe College). While at Butler, Watkins joined the Gamma chapter of
Kappa Alpha Theta Women's Fraternity and was initiated in 1919. That year, she graduated first in her class from Butler, and then moved on to Radcliffe, Massachusetts to pursue graduate studies in Greek. Baker encouraged writing students to seek experience in the larger world and may have recommended newspaper reporting. Watkins left Radcliffe before completing a degree, moved to Chicago and first worked in advertising for
Standard Oil. While working in advertising, she entertained ideas of working as a playwright. In early 1924, she instead landed a job as a reporter with the
Chicago Tribune. Gartner and Annan, after months of press coverage in Chicago's seven daily papers, were found not guilty in separate trials; Watkins believed they were guilty. Watkins published about 50 stories during her time at the paper, in addition to crime and courts, she was sent to cover funerals, wrote on women's style, and she profiled leaders of the women's pacifist movement. Watkins also briefly reported on the noted
Leopold and Loeb kidnapping and murder case, whose sensational qualities quickly overshadowed the coverage of the Belva Gaertner verdict. Soon after, she returned to school to study again under Baker, who had moved to Yale University, to help start the
Yale School of Drama. As a class assignment in his famous
47 Workshop course, she wrote a thinly fictionalized account of the two murders. She first called it
The Brave Little Woman, then
Chicago, or Play Ball (first copyrighted version: pre-production manuscript), and finally
Chicago (second copyrighted version: post-production script). Beulah Annan became "
Roxie Hart"; Belva Gaertner, "
Velma"; Albert Annan, "Amos Hart"; and the two lawyers, William Scott Stewart and W.W. O'Brien, were combined into the composite character "
Billy Flynn". Watkins' rival reporters, who were far more sympathetic to the women's causes, were parodied as "Mary Sunshine," the easily manipulated reporter who later turns into Velma and Roxie's vaudeville manager. Director Sam Forrest was replaced by
George Abbott at the request of
Jeanne Eagels (Roxie Hart); but Eagels quit the show within a few days, and
Francine Larrimore replaced her.
Chicago opened on Broadway on 30 December 1926 (though the run is listed as 1927). The play ran for a respectable 172 performances, then toured for two years (with a then-unknown
Clark Gable appearing as Amos Hart in a Los Angeles production ). A
silent film version in 1927 was produced and supervised by
Cecil B. DeMille and starred former
Mack Sennett "bathing beauty"
Phyllis Haver as Roxie Hart. It was adapted as
Roxie Hart in 1942 with
Ginger Rogers in the title role. This 1942 film version eliminated all the murderesses except the unnamed Velma Kelly, and the stage and screen musical versions eliminated Jake, Babe, and several other characters. Watkins wrote about 20 plays, but
Chicago was her most successful. She moved to Hollywood to write screenplays, including the 1936 comedy
Libeled Lady. The film featured
William Powell,
Myrna Loy,
Jean Harlow, and
Spencer Tracy. Her play and screenwriting, coupled with investments, made her a millionaire, and she traveled the world. ==Later life==