Mary Fry Walker

The memorial service for Mrs. Mary Lee Fry Walker, widow of the late Reverend Edwin S. Walker, III, will be conducted at 3 pm on Saturday, August 24, 2024, at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, with the Reverend Joshua Knott, officiating. The family will greet friends at the church from 2:30 pm until the time of the service and again after the service. Mary was born in Signal Mountain, TN, on April 7, 1930, and departed this earthly life on July 14, 2024, at her residence at Laurel Crest in W. Columbia, SC. She was the daughter of the late Ira Lee Fry and Mary Elizabeth Wyatt Fry. In her youth Mary Lee was known for her “joie de vivre”. She would explore the cliffs above the Tennessee River and roller skate around the mountain using old-fashioned metal skates. Her father taught her to drive on those curvy steep roads and she was able to drive about any vehicle. She was also an avid reader and this continued throughout her life. Mary Lee Walker graduated from Columbia International University in 1952 and taught Bible for a year in a public school in Lockhart, South Carolina. Mary Lee met Ed while studying at CIU and in 1953 she married Edwin Stuart Walker III becoming a pastor’s wife at Grace Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Virginia. She accompanied her husband and eldest son to the mission field in Haiti in 1956 where she had many roles including teaching literacy classes and overseeing the cooking on an open fire to feed a large group of seminary students. In the early years in Haiti, Mary Lee ran her home without the convenience of electricity or plumbing. She faced the many challenges of living in a third world country with faith and fortitude. An example of this is when her eldest son, Stuart, was deathly sick with malaria. Ed flew with him to another town to get medical help. It was at least a week before she was to receive word as to whether or not he was still alive. After surviving a devastating hurricane in 1964, the family moved to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, where Mary Lee became secretary for her husband who assumed the role of director of Radio Lumiere. From time to time her responsibilities included attending government functions and entertaining dignitaries. Mary Lee preferred to work behind the scenes. She was extremely capable. If there was a need, she filled it and did so effortlessly including running a guest house for many years until the Walkers left Haiti in 1979. They settled in Norfolk, Virginia where Mary Lee continued to assist Ed as secretary and concentrated on being there for her younger three children who were still at home. In 1985 Mary Lee accompanied her husband to Miami, Florida. There she threw herself into the office work of World Team Mission running the billing department and learning to use a computer for the first time. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, they retired and moved to Columbia, South Carolina where she volunteered at Sharing God’s Love, led the weekly prayer meeting at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church and attended the monthly prayer meeting at CIU. They enjoyed a number of trips visiting family as well as traveling to Haiti, Europe, New Caledonia, Philippines, Alaska, and Israel. During these years she also had the opportunity to be involved in the lives of her grandchildren. Mary Lee will be greatly missed by all her children and grandchildren. Survivors include her daughters, Mary Anne Rudy (Mike) and Sara E. Walker, and her sons, E. Stuart Walker (Susan), David L. Walker, and Thomas N. Walker (Beth). She is also survived by her grandchildren, Anne Sorenson, Lindsay Berry, Scott Bourne, Jason, Ben, Andrea Nussbaum, Jonathan, Susanna Rudy, David, Virginia, Elizabeth Walker, Madison Walker, and 21 great-grandchildren. Memorials may be made to one of the following; Columbia International University, P.O. Box 3122, Columbia, SC 29230-3122 or World Team, 1431 Stuckert Road, Warrington, PA 18976-2851.