"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully it's own prepared to die at any time."

-Mark Twain

Wilma did not fear death and indeed she lived life fully. She died peacefully and on her own terms September 21, 2025, at Carthage Memorial Hospital with friends and family.

Born October 3, 1931, at home near St. Patrick Missouri, Wilma was not a fan of religion or school and opted to ride her horse most days, going to school only for exams. Later, as a mother of six children she graduated from Culver Stockton College and became a social worker in Keokuk and then Labelle Manor.

Wilma especially enjoyed hosting her neighborhood "lunch bunch" for years, travelling, reading, acquiring pets and plants with abandon until the day she died. She was a respected horsewoman and a crackerjack shot with a gun.

In 1948 the owner of the Canton diner left Wilma in charge at seventeen years old and she decided that to serve African Americans at the back door and Mexican workers at the counter was inefficient and just plain wrong. She single-handedly integrated the diner and it remained that way until it was torn down decades later.

She met Bob Hope, Cab Calloway, and had Lawrence Ferlinghetti to lunch on her deck overlooking her beloved Mississippi. She fed the possums, woodchucks and birds that lived on her bluff. She had a way with all animals; a wild duck as a child saved in a blizzard that returned every year for five years and a wasp on her porch for a few years until "it came and fluttered on my cheek to say goodbye."

The Lee County Democrats hung a notable picture of her defending her Biden/Harris sign with her gun and her dog.

She raised her six children with her husband Dale Walker, a few foster kids and many others in her orbit. She was known for carrying pictures of her favorite animals and none of her children; Roger (Mary Dawkins), Denise (Karl Bakkum), Alan (deceased), Gina (Michael Katz), MaryBeth (Brian Neime), and LeAnn (Roland Hasness).

None of the six can agree on the exact number but there are at least 15 grandkids and a slew of great and great-great grandchildren and another on the way.

A private natural burial will be at Day Cemetery in Winchester, Missouri, near her son Alan and brother Bill Bash. A memorial celebration will be held during morel season in the spring.

Donations in her name would be welcomed at the Keokuk Animal Shelter.