Margaret Ann Walters

Margaret Ann Walters of Walla Walla, died peacefully November 21, 2020, at Washington Odd Fellows Home. She was 97 years old. Margaret was born June 12, 1923, in Canton, Ohio, the only daughter of Allen Ray and Mary Smart McKitrick Walters.
A graduate of Lehman High School, she earned her B.A. at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and her Masters of Library Science at Columbia University in New York City. After her first job as librarian of the Kamehameha School in Honolulu, Hawaii, she spent a year traveling around the world by ship before serving as head librarian of the public libraries in New London, Connecticut, then Painesville, Ohio. At the age of 50 she quit her job in Painesville to pursue her lifelong interest in art. She settled in Venice, Florida, where she was active in plein-air (outdoor) painting until moving to Walla Walla in 2006 to be closer to her brother in British Columbia and a nephew in Walla Walla. She threw herself into the art scene in Walla Walla, contributing love as well as financial support to local art associations and the Walla Walla Community College Art Department; exhibiting in shows at Whitman College, Cavu Cellars, Whitman Place and the Walla Walla Picture Lab; participating in the ArtSquared annual event; advocating for plein-air painting and sponsoring the first “Walla Walla Paint Out,” which became a yearly tradition later renamed for her. Her paintings can be found in homes and institutions all over Walla Walla. She remained a voracious reader to the very end, and was working on her first, almost-finished novel when she died.
She was a lifelong member of the Church of the Brethren and faithfully lived its central tenets: she never even tasted alcohol, always put the needs of others before her own, and was a champion of gender, racial, socio-economic and environmental justice.
She is survived by her elder brother, Robert Walters of Richmond, B.C. and her sister-in-law Marilyn Walters of Grand Rapids, Michigan; as well as nephews and nieces: Peter Collie (Sidney, Australia), Kate Collie (Victoria, B.C.), Jeremy Collie (Narragansett, Rhode Island), Louise Walters Taylor (Richmond, B.C.), Mark Walters (Birmingham, Michigan), David Walters (Lake Orion, Michigan), Jonathan Walters (Walla Walla) and Martha Walters Atwater (Grand Rapids, Michigan), their spouses, children and grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; and her younger brother, Harold Walters.
Desiring “to go out as part of the solution, not as part of the problem,” she eschewed both traditional burial and cremation in favor of eco-friendly alkali hydrolysis. Her hydrolyzed remains will be interred beside her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles in Canton, Ohio. The family thanks the devoted staff at the Washington Odd Fellows Home who cared for her through the COVID pandemic, and the many friends who enriched her life after her move to Walla Walla, and who honored and admired her strong will and her sharp wit. In lieu of flowers she would best be memorialized by contributions in support of the fine arts, education, or the environment.