Barbara A. Walker

STANDISH — Barbara Ann Walker, a nurse who provided care to inmates of the Windham Correctional Center and the Cumberland County Jail, and to patients at hospitals and nursing facilities in Millinocket, Westbrook and Yarmouth, succumbed to cancer Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, at her home in Standish in the company of her husband and their three children. She was 67.

Born on May 23, 1945, in Galveston, Texas, to the late John and Ann Lovell, she married Jerry Walker, a schoolteacher, in 1964. In 1990, she earned her diploma in practical nursing from Southern Maine Community College with highest honors, and pursued a nursing career that had been postponed by the births of her children. Previously, she had worked as the food services director at Millinocket Regional Hospital and as a kitchen supervisor at Jackson Brook Institute in South Portland. Most recently, she assisted in controlling and treating heroin and opiate medication addiction for patients at CAP Quality Care in Westbrook and the Cumberland County Jail. She also was a medication nurse at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, a charge nurse at Springbrook Center for Health Care & Rehabilitation in Westbrook and at Brentwood Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Yarmouth, and a fitness and wellness educator at Millinocket Regional Hospital, where she focused on cholesterol screening.

With her husband she built a home in Standish on Watchic Lake, where she enjoyed kayaking, swimming, and attracting wild birds to numerous bird feeders around their house. Late in her life, she was pleased to tour London and visit a friend in Ireland.

Her children and her husband reminisced about her following her death. “I always thought she’d be here, no matter what,” her son Joel said. “She always put everyone else ahead of herself.” “She was funny,” said Lisa. “She was kind, loving, and we had many great times together — margaritas by the pool, summer days at the ocean, playing cards on the porch. She was a wonderful mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. We will miss her, forever.”

Her son, Eric, composed this poem, “A Mother’s Love”:

Swimming without getting your hair wet. Secret stashes of chocolate that weren’t too secret. Waking up each morning with a little slap and a yell of ‘Chuckie.’ Christmas presents for Eric Ann the undies man and chocolate covered cherries. Coffee cans filled with blueberries and trips to camp. Days at the beach and walks in the woods. Tuna noodle casserole with French’s onion rings. Board games and Saturday morning cartoons. Kidney stew with half-and-half milk and of course a cat named Chicken. ‘That’s Barb,’ her husband Jerry said. ‘That’s what she was like. She was my life.’

In addition to her husband, other surviving family members are her sons, Eric Walker of Naples and Joel Paul Walker of Auburn; her daughter, Lisa Walker Davis of Pittsfield; her four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and her brothers, John Lovell and Alan Lovell, both of Portland.

Funeral services will be private. Arrangements by Watson, Neal & York Funeral Home.