Lula Fay Walker

Lula Fay (DeBoard) Walker was born to Floyd Wilson DeBoard and Dessie Irene (Clark) DeBoard in Mountain View, Howell County, Missouri, on July 30, 1930. She died on December 19, 2016. Most of the time between those two dates she spent getting things done, and getting them done right. When Lula Fay (“Lu”) was a teenager, her father used to say “Lu doesn’t just go, she double-goes.” If you were lucky enough to have known her, you know that was true. She never just went, she went with unfailing energy and passion, determined never to deliver anything other than her very best. This was not always easy for her, or for those around her, but it was always amazing.

Born in the first year of the Great Depression, Lu was the eldest child in family of seven. To her family she was the unflagging center of gravity, always ready to serve and protect with a fierce loyalty. Money, food, and clothing were all scarce, and she worked unremittingly to see to it that her younger siblings never went without. This never changed.

In 1946, her junior year of high school, Lu asked Bill to a Sadie Hawkins party; Bill says he fell in love that night and has never looked back. They were married at Keesler Air Force base in Biloxi, Mississippi, on August 22, 1951. Bill was sent to Korea in January 1953, when their daughter was just a few months old. After Korea, Bill went to engineering school on the GI Bill, and Lu managed a household on a shoestring, teaching a rural school one year for extra money, and adding a son to the family the following year. After college, they moved to Beaverton Oregon, where they immediately joined the First Baptist Church of Beaverton. (Bill is fond of saying there was a lot of compromise in their marriage: Lu was a Republican and a Baptist and Bill was a Nazarene and a Democrat. He compromised by becoming a Republican and a Baptist.)

Lu was a full time home maker, mom, older sister, grandma, and great grandma, frequently traveling to lead family events across her adopted state of Oregon, her homeland Missouri, and clear to South Carolina. She did this while never missing a beat as a critical partner in supporting Bill’s career in his demanding leadership roles at Tektronix, ESI, and Planar. Meanwhile, Lu pursued her own successful volunteer career. As a Southern Baptist she led countless committees, clubs, and events, from weddings to funerals, from Sunday School classes to Vacation Bible School, from women’s retreats to the Women’s Missionary Union. If it needed to get done, she was the one to do it. Her leadership skills and experience eventually led her to become the President of the Northwest Baptist WMU (Women’s Missionary Union), and the President of WMU nationally. She also served on the Southern Baptist Home Mission board (national) and the Board of Trustees for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Dallas. She was a founding member and sometime President of the Beaverton Junior Women’s Club (present-day Beaverton Women’s Club) and a founding member of the West Hills Racquet Club where she took up tennis and was a force to be reckoned with. Plus she read voraciously, from Martha Grimes mysteries to David McCullough’s history tomes. Double-go indeed.

But with all of that, there is no doubt that Lu’s greatest gift was hospitality. Her children’s friends were welcome in the Walker house and many of them have maintained an ongoing relationship these many years later. For decades, no new family visited the First Baptist Church of Beaverton without an invitation to her home for coffee or lunch after the service. She opened both her home and her heart to all who came, and her example led FBC Beaverton to become a church truly infused with the Spirit of Hospitality. People who visited knew immediately that this was the acceptance, and the church family, they had been looking for.

Lu is survived by her husband of 65 years, William D. Walker; they were a particularly close and devoted couple. She was the loving mother of Janis Gilmore (Calvin) of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and Scott Walker (Cindy) of Boise, Idaho. She was the caring and involved grandmother of four grandchildren: Jeffrey W. Gilmore (Carrie) of Pawleys Island, South Carolina; Jordan Watkins (Russell) of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina; Mackenzie Walker of Portland; and Natalie Walker of Boise, Idaho. And the doting great grandmother who loved and often retold stories of her four great grandchildren: Evangeline Gilmore, Walker Gilmore, Rutherford Watkins, and Gilmore Grace Watkins, all of South Carolina.

Lu is also survived by six dearly loved siblings. Cora Leah Henshaw (Bob), Roseburg; Donald DeBoard (Peggy), Salem; Edwin Wilson DeBoard (Opal), Hood River; Jaunita Cross (Almon), Prineville; Snoden S. DeBoard (Pat), Prineville; and William F. DeBoard (Michelle), of Sherwood.

Lu was predeceased by an infant brother, Carl Homer DeBoard.

She also leaves behind many, many loving nieces and nephews and many dear friends. She is truly mourned, deeply missed.

“Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.” Proverbs 31:25