Jauvanta Maurine Walker (1926-2007)
WALKER, YOUNG, MCWILLIAMS, BROWN, SNYDER
Posted By: Ames Tribune
Date: 11/20/2007 at 18:41:11
THE AMES TRIBUNE, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Tuesday, November 20, 2007.
Nov. 28, 1926-Nov. 12, 2007
Jauvanta Maurine Walker, known to friends as Jav or Java, died Monday, Nov. 12, at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. A time of remembrance will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23, at the Northcrest Community Green Room in Ames. A reception will follow. A private service will be in Iowa State University Cemetery.
Jauvanta Maurine Walker was born Nov. 28, 1926, in Lubbock, Texas. She grew up near Rochester, N.Y., and in Athens, Ohio. Her parents were the late Col. William Morris Young and Margaret Freeley McWilliams Young. She had two sisters, Jean Brown, of Newport, R.I., and the late Jo Ellen Snyder, of Sierra Vista, Ariz. She had seven nieces and nephews in Arizona, California and Florida, and 15 grandnieces and grandnephews.
Her fond links with Ames and Iowa began in 1943 as an Iowa State student in mathematical statistics and creative writing. She received a bachelor's degree with top honors in 1947, and stayed on to work in ISU's Statistical Laboratory for more than 30 years, mainly as a technical writer and editor.
In 1948, she married Dr. Albert L. Walker, English professor and department chairman. They had a very close relationship until his death in 1980. Besides strengthening relationships among faculty members, their families and other departments, she was active in the Faculty Women's Club and other ISU groups. She and Albert enjoyed jazz music. They drove frequently to the southwest to learn about and collect materials about Native American arts and cultures.
After being widowed, she pursued this interest in Native Americans through further travel in the Southwest, Alaska and other places in the United States and abroad. Besides photography, she developed skills in art and design by completing a bachelor's degree in fine arts (1992, cum laude) and a master's in anthropology and related subjects (1995) at ISU. In her thesis, she pulled together years of observations about Native North American art and artists.
She also pursued interests in creative writing. Many of her poems appeared in "Lyrical Iowa." She published in other literary magazines. She received regional and national awards for writings, photographs and abstract paintings. Many of these creations reflected her sensitivity to native cultures, and love for storytelling and Southwest landscapes. She was an officer in the Iowa Poetry Association and National League of American Pen Women groups in Iowa.
Amid all this, she took time to relax with friends in bridge groups, courses for seniors at ISU and elsewhere, and learning tours abroad.
She approached everything that she did in a quiet, deliberate manner that included collecting vast amounts of background materials.
Stevens Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
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