Dorothy "Fern" Walton Walker

Dorothy Walton Walker of Winston-Salem passed away on Monday, February 9, 2026 in Monroe, New Jersey where she had lived for the past four years. She was 92 years old. She was born Dorothy Fern Walton on Sunday, December 24, 1933 to Abner and Clara (née Young) Walton in Moody Texas. After graduating from Dunbar High School, Fern (as most people called her) briefly attended Tillotson College in Austin, Texas before joining the Air Force where she specialized in communications. There she met her future husband, Jerome L. Walker I. They were married a year after her discharge from the Air Force, moved to Winston-Salem, NC, and started a family.

Even while raising four children, Fern went back to college, fulfilling the promise she had made to her father as a child to be the first in her family to earn a college degree. She graduated from Winston-Salem State University in 1964 with a BS in Elementary Education and Teaching. After graduation, she taught Junior High School English and Mathematics in the Forsyth County Public School System. After her first year, the Superintendent nominated her to attend advanced training at Harvard University, which she completed that summer. She continued to teach in the public school system until 1967, when she took a teaching job at St. Benedict the Moor Catholic School, which her children attended. She taught there until 1978, serving as Assistant Principal for her last six years there.

After leaving teaching, Fern worked as a job counselor at the Employment Security Commission for 10 years. Pursuing her dream to become a licensed therapist, she obtained a Master’s degree in Counseling from North Carolina A&T State University in 1990 and became a licensed cognitive behavioral therapist. She then joined Exchange/SCAN of Winston-Salem, an organization working to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect. In 2008, she formed her own counseling service, Butterflies and Bumblebees, PLLC, which she ran until she retired. She specialized in the treatment of child sexual abuse, publishing original research and serving as an expert witness on multiple occasions.

Throughout her life, Fern loved participating in church activities, spending time with friends, cooking, baking, sewing, arts and crafts, restoring furniture, listening to country music, and watching Family Feud. But her first priority was always her family. She made many sacrifices to make sure that her children would have more opportunities than she had, making sure that every one of her children went to college.

Fern is predeceased by her mother and father, her brother Abner “Sonny,” her sister Carl, and her husband Jerome I. She is survived by her sister-in-law Dora, niece Liz (husband Mike and daughter Nicole and nephew Donell); her daughter Yolanda; her son Jerome II (wife Jennifer, children Jerome III and Janelle); her son Raphael; her son Michael (wife Jinghua, children Sophia and Mia); her daughter Rhea; many nieces and nephews; and many other loved ones and friends.

A celebration of life will be held on May 16, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. at Vogler Funeral & Cremations at Forsyth Memorial Park, 3815 Yadkinville Rd, Winston Salem NC 27106.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the American Cancer Society.