The Children of Samuel and Reil Walker

The "third group" of children that Samuel N. Walker had were those from his marriage to the local teacher, Jennie Reil Hannah, at the one room Midway School where some of his children were students.

If one takes a look at the family group photo which was taken in about 1915 after 10 of their eleven children were born, Hattie Mae looks pretty worn out from all the childbearing. Sam, on the other hand, seems youthful, robust, and virile.

The picture didn't lie.

Hattie Moyers Walker, Sam's first wife, died April 7, 1918, leaving him with eight or nine of their eleven children still at home, the youngest just a month old.

[Jennie] Reil [Hannah] Walker

Being a single parent of so many young children must have been a very formidable challenge. Apparently Reil knew this family situation all too well, having a flock of the Walker children in her school, and as she was of a kind heart, took some pity on or interest in this man who, by virtue of his age could have been her father, and this resulted in her decision to marry him. She was 27 years old and Sam was 50 when they were wed. It was two weeks and a day before Easter Sunday, 1920 when they got married in Davenport on Saturday, March 27.

On that same date, a 25 year old man named Mr. Arthur Murray, a student enrolled at business administration course at Georgia Tech, was trying his hand at getting some national publicity. He had been teaching dancing during his spare time at the Grill Room of the Georgian Terrace, the leading resort hotel in Atlanta, and he concocted a gimmick to gain some attention by trying to use the new miracle of radio to transmit music to some of his own students dancing a few miles away. It evidently worked and was considered the world's first radio broadcast of live dance music. And Mr. Murray received quite a bit of national coverage which may have been the catalyst that led to his later fame. (From A History of ARTHUR MURRAY & the International Franchised Dance Studios.)

The Children of Sam and Reil Walker: (Top to Bottom) Viola, John, Marjorie, and Robert.

Soon thereafter, Viola Belle Walker, their first child, was born to Sam and Reil. Bill Walker, Sam's youngest by his first marriage, was still a toddler. Elsie, the eldest of his children, was a young woman. The depression was eight years away and the world was essentially in an optimistic mood.

John Henry Walker was born to Sam and Reil on July 3, 1924. Marjorie Naomi and Robert Charles followed John. The final child Sam Walker fathered was Rosalie Reil Walker, born January 11, 1933. She died as an infant on January 28, 1933 and was buried on the 30th of that month in Elmwood Cemetery outside of Morning Sun.

John Henry Walker was 17 when World War II began. He was issued an exemption from military service in order to help his father, 72 years old, manage the family farm. The patriotism of the day, perhaps with real or imagined pressure he felt by having two brothers, Bill and Paul, in the service, probably weighed heavily on him, and he eventually joined the army and was sent to Europe.

On November 11, 1944 in Margratten, Holland, as the war in Europe subsided, John was lost in the fighting and never was seen nor heard of again. Several newspaper articles posted in the Tour section of this site give information about John and about the later search for him. One article concerns the three Walker boys in the war; a later article from the 1970s discusses the possibility that more information might be found out about John Walker by some people in Holland. But unfortunately nothing more ever was. There is also a Flash 5 presentation in the paperwork section that attempts to present the history of John Walker.

Viola Walker married Verl V. Van Houten and they moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. They had four children; Verl died in 1991.

Marjorie Walker married Trevor Kimble and they lived in Morning Sun, Iowa. Trevor was an expert on cacti among other things; he collected them read about them, and was avid photographer of them during his lifetime. Trevor died in 1996 and was buried on what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary; he and Marge had three children.

Robert Walker married Ethel Lucas. They lived in Iowa at the beginning of their marriage and later moved to Victoria, Texas and later into the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

To date the life spans of the children of Sam Walker have extended over 108 years.