On Jan. 18,2025, a beautiful soul left our Earthly realm. My mom, best friend and biggest fan, Virginia Walker. She lived a vibrant country life and raised a strong, loving family.
Virginia started out life as a self-proclaimed “mill brat” born in Garberville on June 9, 1944, to Frankie “Pearl” Say and Johnnie Say. Mom was the middle child of eight kids, five living into adulthood. During her childhood she lived in the Briceland/Thorn area of Southern Humboldt County, learning how to swim in the Mattole, fishing for perch off the rocks at Shelter Cove and keeping up with her brothers and older sister in the redwood valleys of her country home. She was known as Ginger to her young cousins, nieces and nephews.
Virginia was always the big joker and kept the family laughing at her funny antics, and made up songs. She loved animals and told us tales of raising pet skunks, bobcats and chipmunks. Mom had a beautiful singing voice and loved to sing in church and while working at home. Mom also had a special talent for making poems and drawing and painting pictures. She started dating her older brother Leslie’s friend, Doug Walker, while they were at South Fork High School. A year after she graduated, they married in 1964 and started building their lives together. My mom always said I waited until the roads were open in the aftermath of the 1964 flood, because she refused to be airlifted out in the emergency helicopter to give birth, so I arrived in January of 1965. My brother, Kevin, came a few years later in 1967.
We were a happy young family and I have many childhood memories of deer hunting, camping, fishing and gardening with the family. Mom loved nature and always took us on adventures swimming, or treasure hunting, flower arranging, making forts and reading books. For fun, we turned over big rocks and looked at all the creatures that lived beneath in the cool damp soil. She taught us how to swim in the Eel River, planted beautiful flower beds and was always singing with us and to us. We always lived in the country and fixed up funky houses into lovely family homesteads.
When my brother was in kindergarten, mom decided she would start working off the homestead. She became a bus driver for Southern Humboldt Unified School District. Mom drove students home to Briceland and Thorn, the communities of her childhood. Because she had vision issues, she did not continue driving bus. At this time she became a teacher’s aide at Redway School and worked in Hank Picton’s (her former teacher at Whitethorn School) sixth grade and many years in Bonnie Knapp’s first grade class. She loved working in the first grade class and would spend the rest of her life working and supporting the students in Southern Humboldt. When my parents bought our home on Fruitland Ridge near Myers Flat in 1980, my mom started working at South Fork High School and worked as a resource program aide in Jackie Cory’s class. She enjoyed working with those students for many years, until taking the librarian job at the original Miranda Junior High in Miranda. Her love of books and joy of working with and inspiring children were a perfect fit and she retired from the Junior High upon its closure in 2002.
And still she was not finished … Mom supported my teaching career, she traveled to Casterlin School with me every Friday and volunteered in my class and when I returned to Redway Elementary, she often volunteered in my classroom there.
During all this time, she was supporting my dad’s projects, taking care of both her aging and widowed mother and mother-in-law, participating in all the grandkids’ field trips and extra curricular adventures, and keeping her yard beautiful with ornamental trees and flowers. She would rather be outside with her dogs, hiking, planting and weeding, rather than cooped up cooking and cleaning (I have definitely taken after her!). Mom loved all her grandchildren, be they of birth or of marriage, they were all her kids. She had her spicy moments, always spoke her mind and was a ferocious defender of the underdog … be they human or an actual dog.
My mother, Laura “Virginia” Say Walker, struggled with Lyme disease and dementia for many years, lovingly cared for by our father. She is survived and remembered by her loving husband of over 60 years, Doyle “Douglas”, daughter (myself) Karie Walker Varner (Jeff) Fruitland Ridge, son Kevin Walker Fruitland Ridge(Sharon), brother Cecil Say Monticello, AR (Francis “Dan”), Grandchildren: Kevin L. Walker (Bre), Kalvin Walker (Ashley), Amelia Coleman (Will), Naomi Walker (Miguel), Klayton Walker, Kolter Walker, Rebecca Walker, Beaudry Varner, Meghan Varner Richardson(Ryan), Great-grandchildren: Leland Walker, Evelyn Virginia Walker Carrillo, Carsen and Erik McMahon, Emma, Jacob, Brice and Lillian Richardson Nieces and nephews including: Daniel Radcliffe, Lavon Radcliffe, Kenneth Radcliffe, David Say, Cecil Say, Pete Say, Linda Say, Brenda Say, and Meghan Vogel. Sisters in Law: Patricia “Pat” Say, Sandra Dean (Bob).
She was preceded in death by her parents, Pearl and Johnnie Say, brother: Leslie Say (Mary), sister: Lorraine Radcliffe (Lowell), brother: Charles Say (Patricia), parents in law: Helen and Doyle Walker, nephew: Gene Radcliffe, niece: Laura Say.
She is remembered by numerous great nieces and nephews and cousins and friends who she considered family of the heart. In celebration of her beautiful life, she would request you plant flowers to promote a healthy bee population and read (especially to children) every day.
Join us in honoring her life on Saturday June 21, 2025 at Stephens Hall in Miranda from noon to 4 p.m.. If you would like, bring a packet of flower seeds to put in our summer solstice “Bee the Love” basket.
This article appears in Wide Open.