Marion C Walker

Celebration of Life

Marion C. (Fitzhugh) Walker, 93, affectionately known as “The Queen”, slipped away quietly at
Summa Hospital Palliative Care on May 8, 2023. She was born in Akron, Ohio, on June 30,
1929.

 The Queen was predeceased by her parents Charles and Angeline (Caffee) Fitzhugh,
husband Calvin C. Walker, brother Joseph L. Fitzhugh and sister Charlena Hewett Brown. 

Marion graduated from North High School in 1947 and not long after, graduated from The Art
Institute where she truly developed as an artist. The Queen was highly creative with her art.
There were paints, brushes, charcoal, pencils and easels all throughout the house! She sketched
and painted on many different substrates, including tin, shingles, glass, and an assortment of
other surfaces. During her time here on Earth, she completed hundreds of original landscapes and
portraits.

 She later decided to pursue higher education at the University of Akron where she
received a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and a Master of Arts in Educational
Administration and Leadership. For over 32 years, Marion was an amazing educator in the
Akron Public School System teaching at Portage Path, Bryan and Bettes Elementary Schools.
During her years at Bryan, she taught many of the children in her community. Those students,
who are adults now, have always been amazed that her memories included their names, their
family’s names and where they lived. 

Marion was an avid reader and loved that her nieces and nephews became published authors, she
would impatiently wait for new installments or finished works by them. Marion loved her family,
and they were always first in her thoughts. Her daughters, Karen, from her first marriage to
James Denny Vader and Alicia, from her second marriage to Calvin C. Walker, consider
themselves blessed to have had a mother whose love and commitment were as strong as hers
were. There is a quote by Abraham Lincoln that embodies how they feel. “All that I am, or hope
to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

Marion leaves to mourn her brother Raymond L. Fitzhugh, and daughters Karen D. Vader and
Alicia L. Walker, granddaughter Lannetta V. Knotts; three great-grandchildren Terrance Knotts,
Halo Parkes and Ivery Wyatt; Special grandchildren, Sharonica, Jerome Jr., Patrice Ivery and
Tayler LeGrair; a myriad of nieces and nephews along with a host of family and friends.