Woodmere native Peggy N. Walker

Gifted teacher inspired students

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Woodmere native Peggy Norden Walker (née Margaret Ann Norden) was known for her generosity of spirit, boundless reserves of love and wisdom, deep loyalty and compassion, a wonderful sense of humor, curiosity, and a rare creative spark that found its expression in color and song, family members said.
The wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, mentor and expectant grandmother died on Nov. 10, after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 63.
The daughter of Ellinor and Jack Norden Jr. and granddaughter of Margaret and Monte Goldstein, Walker took to music while growing up in the Five Towns and became a gifted musician. She played the piano, flute and guitar, along with other instruments.
An enthusiastic camper at Whippoorwill, she also lived in Stavanger, Norway, in 1968 as a participant in the Experiment in International Living. Walker graduated from Hewlett High School in 1969 and received her degree in elementary education from the University of Hartford in 1973 and her master’s in early childhood education five years later.
While in Hartford, performing folksongs in the college coffee house she met audience member Jim Walker, who be came her life partner and best friend. They married in September 1973, on a cliff top at Lake Minnewaska, where Walker had spent her childhood summers. A decade later, they joyfully welcomed their daughter, Jody Lee, into their lives.

She first worked as a tour guide at the Mark Twain House in Hartford. Then Walker began a decades-long career as a preschool teacher, working at several schools and daycare centers in Connecticut, before beginning a storied 22-year career at the Gan Keshet Preschool at Congregation B’nai Israel in Northampton, Mass., where she was known for leading innovative and lyrical Tot Shabbat programs there and at Beit Ahavah, the Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton, family members said
Walker touched the lives of hundreds of children and through them, added immeasurably to her community. That community returned the love in kind, honoring her with an appreciation dinner in 2004 for 15 years of excellence in teaching at Gan Keshet; with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation “Inspiration Award” in 2013 for “more than two decades of inspiring young children;” and with unstinting support, encouragement, and emotional sustenance during her last two challenging years.
Adamant that she was not battling cancer; Walker said she was living with it. Her indomitable spirit, amazing strength and innate understanding of the imperative to look forward led to a joyous vow renewal ceremony on her 40th wedding anniversary in 2013, inspiring everyone privileged to know her, family members said.
She is survived by her adoring husband, daughter and son-in-law, Kyle Bryson Smith; and her loving, devoted brother, Peter, sister-in-law Rhonda; and nieces; Leslie and Maggie; and loving extended family.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Walker’s memory may be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, pancan.org/donate-now/.
Funeral services were held on Nov. 13 at Congregation B’nai Israel in Northampton. The Ahearn Funeral Home, also in Northampton, was in charge of the arrangements.