Biography of Alice Bramel Walker, St Francis County, AR

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Submitted by: Paul V Isbell
        Date: 19 Nov 2008
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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Mrs. George P. Walker, Sr., of Forrest City, is one of the most remarkable and
inspiring women ever to live in St. Francis County. A true matriarch, loved and
revered by her six living children, eighteen grandchildren and three great-
grandchildren. Now in her 76th year, Mrs. Walker is still as active and vigorous
of mind and body as a woman many years her junior. Mrs. Walker, the former Alice
Bramel was born near Moro in Lee County, the daughter of the late Peter and
Chelnesse (Harris) Bramel. While a young girl, she moved with her parents to St.
Francis County in 1886. She received her formal education at the Wheatley Public
School. On Jan. 20, 1897, she became the bride of George P. Walker, who was to
become a widely-known and prosperous landowner in the county. To this union were
born eight children, Catherine Emily, wife of Wilbur H. Johnston, they have two
children, Wilbur (who married Lois Church and has two children, David Carter and
Sarah Patricia) and Patricia Alice, who is married to Richard Four; Edwin
Bramel, married Flora Martin, two children, Mary Catherine and Edwin Bramel Jr.;
Mildred, wife of John Sikes; George P. Jr., married Marian Childs, four
children, Robert George (who married Joyce Harris), Marian Janet, (who is
married to Joseph Dilday and has one child, Dixie Lee), George Philip III and
Charles Oscie; William, Clement (deceased), married Lois Kelley, three children,
Roselyn Anne, Frances Lois and William Clement Jr.; Elizabeth Virginia, marred
to Forrest Riffey, four children, Elizabeth, Camille, Giles Edgar, Janete Larie,
and Alice Joan; Alice May (deceased) married to Horace Adams; and Frances,
married to Samuel Lee Bowman, three children, Alice, Anne, Samuel Lee Jr., and
William Walker. At Mr. Walker's death in 1941, Mrs. Walker became adminiistrator
of the estate, which meant looking after 1013 acres of plantation land in the
bottoms, the 12-unit Walker Apartment House in Forrest City (which she still
actively manages:; and eight rental houses which she had purchased herself. Mrs.
Walker has been President of the Women's Temperance Union three times, Cosmos
Club two times, School Improvement Association, (now the PTA) two times, and the
County Federation of Women's Club two times. She was the first woman in the
Helena Methodist district to serve as General Superintendent of a Sunday School
which she held six years. First woman to serve on a Grand Jury in Arkansas. She
has been a member of the choir for thirty years, and other positions of service
in the church. She is proud to have sent all her children to college, with six
obtaining degrees. An interesting note, Mr. C. A. Ahlstedt who built the St.
Francis County Courthouse built the Walker apartments for the couple, with the
blueprint finished June 6, 1938. Mr. & Mrs. Walker moved into the six room
apartment on Jan. 19, 1939, one day before the Walker's forty-second wedding
anniversary. Mr. Walker passed away one year and eight months later with a heart
ailment.


SOURCE:
HISTORY of ST. FRANCIS COUNTY, ARKANSAS, 1954 - Robert W. Chowning

Copyright, with Permission: Weston McCollum Lewey, Publisher
-Times Herald Publishing-Forrest City, Arkansas