William was born 26 May 1895 in Maysville, Georgia, a son of Howell Davis and Sarah Jane (née Cochran) Watkins.
They had children Howell Jackson, Lamar Hancock, William Turner Jr., Luther Tate, and John Scott.
William Turner Watkins entered the ordained ministry of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the MECS in 1914.
Watkins also served as the editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, an important periodical of his denomination.
William Turner Watkins was elected and consecrated a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South by the final General Conference of this denomination in 1938.