Eileen L. Walters

Eileen L. "Engeberg" Walters was born to Joseph and Sarah (Rud) Engeberg on September 5, 1917 in rural Kenmare, North Dakota. Eileen's childhood was spent on the farm. She was the oldest of 3 siblings. She had 1 brother and 1 sister. When she was growing up in North Dakota, she told stories of the Indians that used to come around the farm. She was never afraid of them and said that her father had befriended them. She attended elementary school in a one-room school. For high school she went to Harvey, North Dakota to Sheyenne River Academy, which was a boarding academy. Eileen always wanted to be a teacher. She attended Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska where she graduated with her degree in teaching. It was at Union College that she met Rex Walters. They dated, fell in love and were married in a double wedding with Eileen's sister, Eleanor and her husband Kenneth, on June 21, 1948 in Kenmare, North Dakota. Eileen and Rex moved to Denver, CO after graduating from Union College. Eileen received her Masters Degree from the University of Denver. She and Rex attended the Denver South Seventh-Day Adventist Church until she became a resident of Hallmark Care Center. When Eileen moved to Denver she went to work teaching in the Denver Public Schools for more than forty years. She taught long enough, that she even taught children of the next generation. She loved teaching and she always had cute stories about the kids that she would share with her friends. At Halloween, she would take a pumpkin to school and let the children carve it out. Then that night she would take the filling home and cook it. She made pumpkin cookies for the kids. Then the next day she took frosting and candy corn and candy pumpkins and the kids got to decorate their cookies. She was a wonderful teacher and if you ask her today, she would probably tell you about her kids. Eileen and Rex never had any children of their own, but they had dozens of "adopted" kids. It wasn't long before they began to meet their "adopted" kids. There were several couples that they befriended who were all young enough to be their children. There were a lot of good times spent in their home, camping in the mountains, camp fires by the water and water skiing. Eileen was a wonderful hostess and great cook. Many wonderful times were spent at their home and around a table full of great food and wonderful stories. They not only had adopted kids, but then they started having "adopted" grandchildren. There were a lot of sleep-overs at Aunt Eileen and Uncle Rex's house. Many Saturday nights were spent playing games and just having a great time. Eileen and Rex moved from Denver to Sedalia in 1975, living there until 1997. During those years, their home was always a welcome place for everyone. Many people were guests in their home for dinner, ice cream socials, and corn roasts, over night stays and many other occasions. It was a very common site to see Eileen busy in her kitchen preparing a 6 or 7 course meal. They loved having company. Eileen and Rex were married for almost 60 years until Rex passed away a little over a year ago. Eileen is one of the most giving individuals there is. She is always trying to take care of everyone. Even after she became ill and moved into Hallmark; when something special is going on in the dining room, she wants to make sure everyone has been served. She had several hobbies that she enjoyed. She especially like to take scraps of fabric and make cute clothes for children who did not have much. She enjoyed ceramics and painting. She served on many committees and different facets of church work. She loved flowers and loved her vegetable garden and spent many hours canning and freezing from her harvest. When neighbors would go on vacation and their gardens would need to be harvested before they got back, she would harvest the vegetables and can or freeze the food for them. They were wonderful neighbors. She also loved animals and the neighbors always knew they could count on Eileen and Rex to take good care of their pets when they would be gone.

She is one of a kind and a very special lady!