Jeanne M. Walker

Jeanne M. Walker, age 83, of Gilbert, Arizona, died April 9, 2011, at an Inspiris Hospice facility in Mesa, Arizona, where she had been taken the previous day after a sudden decline in health. Memorial services will be held at a later date in Sabula, Iowa.
Jeanne Marie Fisher was born on November 8, 1927, in McGregor, Iowa, the daughter of John Harrison Fisher and Collette (Cauley) Fisher. She attended schools in Sioux City, Iowa, and Savanna, Illinois, graduating in May of 1945. Having inherited her mother’s talent for writing, she was editor of her high school yearbook, the Annavas. She then earned a diploma from St. Bernard’s School of Nursing and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree from Loyola University in Chicago in 1949.
On May 20, 1950, she married Wayne M. Walker of Sabula, Iowa, in St. Peter's Catholic Church in Sabula. They had six children, Mary Jo, Nancy, Edwin, Mark, Eric, and Peggy. After Wayne retired in 1988, Jeanne and Wayne relocated to Gilbert, Arizona, where their children Nancy, Ed, and Eric live.
Jeanne was a member of the parish council of St. Peter’s Church in Sabula from 1968 until 1980.
Jeanne had an outstanding career as a nurse, beginning with her employment at the Edward J. Hines VA Hospital in Chicago. At Mercy Hospital in Clinton, Iowa, she advanced to the position of Director of Nurses; she was director of the Harbor Crest Nursing Home in Fulton, Illinois; and she was Assistant Director of Nursing at the Savanna City Hospital in Savanna, Illinois. After she and Wayne moved to Arizona in 1988, she worked at the Desert Samaritan hospital in Mesa, Arizona until 1992.
Devoted to her children and grandchildren, Jeanne was a selfless, hard-working, generous, and kind wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and aunt to her family members who miss her terribly, daughters Mary Jo (Franz) Rabe, Nancy (Bill) Claflin with grandson Bob, and Peggy Walker, sons Edwin (Jana Granillo) Walker with granddaughter Erin, Mark (Linda) Walker with grandson Christopher and granddaughter Kerry, Eric (Catherine) Walker with granddaughters Elizabeth and Michelle, and brothers Rev. Bernard Fisher and Dale Fisher, sister Juanita Bjork as well as numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, etc. She was preceded in death by her husband Wayne, her parents, her sister Suzanne Kaster, and her brothers Darrell and Robert Fisher.