St.
Clair County Obits
BERNICE L. WALKER
NEVADA DAILY MAIL
MONDAY JUNE 23, 2008
Bernice Loree Walker
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Bernice Loree Walker, 99, of Tiffin, Mo., died Thursday, June 19,
2008, at Nevada Regional Medical Center. Shewas born April 25, 1909,
in Warsaw, Mo., to James Milton Downs and Laura M. Taylor Downs. She
was married Dec. 8, 1927, in Joplin, to George Lawrence Hoffman and he
preceded her in death January 1947. She later married H. Clay Walker,
in June 1968, and he precceded her in death September 1975.
Bernice grew up in the Tiffin and Osceola, Mo., area. She attended
grade school in the old one room country schools at the Glendale and
Sweet School and finished her eighth grade at Ararat School in the
general Tiffin area. She attended high school in El Dorado Springs.
During her high school years she rode a horse to and from home in the
Tiffin area into El Dorado Springs on Monday mornings and retured to
help on the family farm on Friday evenings. She stayed in El Dorado
Springs with her aunt and uncle, George and Julia (Taylor) Griffith.
She worked at the Griffith family restaurant for her room and board.
She commenced her church and Bible studies at an early age, attending
the old Kinerly Chapel Church around Tiffin. Bernice and George
accepted Christ as their Savior in the late summer of 1940 at the
Pleasant Ridge Missionary Baptist Church, in Pacetown, both were
baptized in the old Fain Family Branch pond. Bernice and George were
active members of the church until George's death.
Later in 1947, after her husbands death, Bernice and her family moved
to El Dorado Springs, and during the next three years she worked at
the shoe factory, the high school cafeteria and the old Highway 54
Diner, in El Dorado Springs. She moved to Nevada in the fall of 1950
and worked at the Nevada State Hospital until her retirement in 1973.
After her retirement from the state hospital, she worked for the next
six months at the Shelley Restaurant Club at Cottey College, and a
couple of years at the Highway 54 Cafe, both in Nevada. She finally
retired in 1982 to her home and hobbies.
Bernice, until the last few years, loved to travel, sight-see, and
visit her families. Bernice's main hobbies included yard work and
gardening. Her social life included spending time with her family,
friends and church. After moving to El Dorado Springs in 1947, she
became a member of the First Baptist Church there until she moved to
Nevada and moved her membership to the Nevada First Baptist Church,
where she has remained a member.
In February of 2003, Bernice moved from Nevada back to the Tiffin area
that she loved so much and close to where she was raised.
Survivors include three beloved children, Ronald Hoffman and his wife
Pearl, the state of Washington, Claud Hoffman of El Dorado Springs,
and Wanda Hiestand and her husband Myron of Tiffin; four
grandchildren, Dennis A. Hoffman, the state of California, Anthony
Paul Hoffman, the state of Arkansas, Claudia Lynn Hoffman-Miller, the
state of California, and Rhonda Loree (Hiestand) Williams, Tiffin,
Mo.; Clay Walker's children, who she loved, Virginia (Walker)
Prescott, El Dorado Springs, and David Walker, the Kansas City area;
several great-grandchildren and several nieces, nephews, cousins and
hundreds of loving friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, both spouses, three sisters,
Ola Downs, who died at an early age, Lola Friar and Irene Green, her
mother's nephew, L.D. Taylor, who was raised from birth as a brother,
and a cousin Mildred (Griffith) Gould.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, June 24, at Ferry
Funeral Home, Nevada, with Dr. William Cox officiating. Interment will
follow in El Dorado Springs City Cemetery, El Dorado Springs.
Friends may call from Saturday morning, June 21, until the hour of
service on Tuesday.
The family suggests that memorials may be made in her honor to the El
Dorado Springs City Cemetery in care of the funeral home.
