A vigil mass for Barbara Gavin Walker of Frisco, Texas, formerly of Brookhaven Mississippi, will be Friday September 4, 2020 at Stonebriar Funeral Home in Frisco from 5-7 pm. The vigil will begin at 5:00 with a light reception to follow.
A private funeral mass (due to social distancing restrictions) will be held Saturday, September 26, 2020 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Brookhaven, Mississippi, with burial at St Francis Catholic Cemetery. Riverwood Funeral Home in Brookhaven is in charge of arrangements.
A public visitation will be Friday September 25, 2020 4pm-7pm at Riverwood Funeral Home.
Mrs. Walker, 77, passed away Saturday, August 22, 2020, surrounded by family and friends at her home in Frisco, TX. She was born May 25, 1943 in Columbia, Tennessee, to Dr. William M. Gavin II and Mary Lucia Hutchinson Gavin. She graduated from St. Agnes Academy for girls in 1961, Siena College in 1963, and St. Joseph’s School of Nursing in 1965. In 1965 she married her high school sweetheart, Louis N. Walker, Jr. They were married for 53 years. She worked as a dialysis nurse for over 40 years. At the end of her career in 2008 she was an Area Regional Manager for multiple dialysis clinics in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. She received numerous awards over her time as a nurse including the Kidney Care Award for nursing. She served on many national committees for dialysis. She was also 1 of the first 2 nurses in Memphis to be trained on the artificial kidney machine and was in attendance for the first kidney transplant in the late 1960s.
Preceding her in death were parents; her brother, Bill Gavin AOCM, USN, Ret., her sister Mary Lucia “Patsy” Barnes, and her husband Louis N. Walker Jr.
She is survived by daughter Robin Walker, of Frisco, TX; daughter Mary Margaret Walker Rushing and husband Will, of Frisco, TX; brother Joseph Gavin and wife Nancy, of North Ridgeville, OH; sister in law Jane Gavin, of Honolulu, HI; sister in law Patricia Taylor and husband Larry, of Parsons, TN; sister in law Cheri Hess Brooks and husband Eugene of Brookhaven; two grandchildren, Ellie and Gavin Rushing, of Frisco, TX; and 11 nieces and nephews.
