Irene P. Walker

Irene Walker (Nee Cattani) passed away at the age of 102 at Westerwood Retirement Community July 20, 2025. She was preceded in death by husband Edward “Ted” Theodore Walker, son Gerald “Jerry” P. Walker, mother and father, Pete and Frances Cattani, sisters Anna Poletti, Silva Curran, and Clara Schwinderman, and brothers, Gilbert and Ernest Cattani. She is survived by her daughters April Stull (husband Gary) and Jane Newgaard (husband Larry), her grandchildren Andrew Stull, Phillip Walker, and Julie "Katie" Johnson (husband Curtis), and her great grandchildren Kaylee and Cayden Johnson.

Irene lived a busy and fulfilling life. At 17 with the onset of WWII, she volunteered at the Salvation Army Canteen in the Dennison railway station serving beverages, sandwiches, cookies and fruit to GIs on their way to the front. After high school, she completed business school in Dayton Ohio and on July 3, 1942, she married Edward Walker at Will Rogers Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. As the war continued, she worked as a riveter and then supervisor at the Goodyear Cosair Factory in Akron Ohio where the Cosair “warbird” was produced.

After the war, Irene, an Airforce wife, flew on her own (pregnant and with two small children) to Germany to reunite with her husband. In the following years, always actively involved in her young children’s lives, Irene followed Ted from Texas to New York to Wyoming. When the family relocated to Columbus Ohio, she took a part-time job at the F & R Lazarus Company that she eventually parlayed into an executive position as the Department head of the 5th and 6th floors.

Retiring after 25 years at 63, she and Ted took up ballroom dancing, travel and church volunteer work. At 87, they moved to Westerwood where Irene, always the volunteer, worked at the village store, library, and garage sale as well as serving as the A-wing representative. She and Ted were long time members of the Linworth United Methodist Church.

August 23rd 2025 Visitation 11:00, Service 11:30 am at the Worthington Chapel.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Linworth Methodist Church, 7070 Bent Tree Blvd., Columbus, OH 43235