MOTHERS IN ISRAEL
By Wayne S. Walker
“Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7). The second Sunday in May each year is known as “Mothers Day.” While the New Testament does not authorize the church to engage in the observance and celebration of any special holidays or festivals, the Bible does have a lot to say about mothers. “’Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth’” (Ephesians 6:2-3). I have known many, many mothers in my three-score and ten years upon this earth, but four of them have had a direct impact and personal influence on my life.
Bertha O. Walker
The first two were the mothers of my parents. My paternal grandmother was born Bertha Olive McConnaughey on October 16, 1896, in Highland County, Ohio, one of nine children, to William and Mary Jane (Layman) McConnaughey. I always assumed that she had an eighth grade education, but my father once told me that she went only through the third grade. However, I recall her telling me that at the age of sixteen she expressed her faith in Christ by making the good confession and being baptized into Christ at the South Liberty Church of Christ near Danville, Ohio. She married my grandfather, Lawrence Elmer Walker, on February 23, 1921, and they had one son, my father Ernest B. Walker, who was born on September 20, 1927. My grandfather died in 1956, and she married King Gall about three years later. My grandmother remained a religious woman throughout her life, and the last church she attended was the Park Ave. (now Northside) Church of Christ in Hillsboro, Ohio. She died at the age of 88 on March 28, 1985.
Mildred M. Workman
My maternal grandmother was born Mildred Merle Holladay on March 5, 1907, near Hillsboro, Ohio, one of three children, to Charles Foster and Flora Ellen (Edingfield) Holladay. After graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1925 and attending Miami University, she taught school until her marriage on October 27, 1927, to my grandfather, Glen Workman. They became the parents of four daughters, of which my mother was the first. I was told that my grandmother was raised in a Methodist home, but I believe that after marrying she obeyed the gospel and was a member of the Church of Christ. For many years, my grandfather preached for the Mount Zion Church of Christ near Belfast in rural Highland County, Ohio. He died in 1979. After that, Grandmother was in a nursing home but attended the Park Ave./Northside Church of Christ in Hillsboro with my mother until her death on March 3, 1983, two days shy of her 76th birthday. I preached both of my grandmothers’ funerals.
Mary Ellen Walker
My own mother was born Mary Ellen Workman on August 3, 1929, in Whiteoak Township, Highland County, OH, to Glen and Mildred Workman, the eldest of four daughters. She attended Whiteoak School in Mowrystown, OH, Wilmington College in Wilmington, OH, and Cincinnati Bible Seminary in Cincinnati, OH. I have a pocket New Testament with the following inscription: “Presented to Mary Ellen Workman, Baptized into Christ, Oct. 13, 1940, Union Church of Christ, James DeForest Murch Minister.” While working at a feed mill in East Danville, Ohio, she met my father, Ernest B. Walker, and they married on December 7, 1952. They went on to have two sons, myself (Wayne Steven Walker), born on Jan. 11, 1954, and my brother (Renn Gordon Walker), born on June 8, 1956.
After my parents moved off the family farm and closer to town in 1959, we started attending what was then the Park Ave. Church of Christ in Hillsboro, later the Northside Church of Christ, and my mother began work at the local Kroger’s grocery store where she remained for over 25 years. My brother was killed on Aug. 24, 1976. Ten years later, in 1986, she and Father moved to Honea Path, South Carolina, where my mother attended the Central Church of Christ in Greenwood, South Carolina, and found a job with a convenience store (The Pantry) in the nearby village of Due West, becoming assistant manager and working there until her death at the age of 64 on May 2, 1994, from pancreatic cancer. My father passed away some sixteen years later, at the age of 82, on September 5, 2010.
Karen A. Walker
The fourth of these influential mothers in my life is my wife and the mother of my children, who was born Karen Ann Hensley on June 30, 1955, at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to William Edward and Mary Lena (Hendricks) Hensley. She was baptized into Christ at the North Church of Christ in Fort Wayne. After attending local elementary schools, graduating from Elmhurst High School, and receiving a B.S.W. degree from Saint Francis College (now University), she labored as a social worker in the Fort Wayne area for five years until we married on March 26, 1983. We first lived in Medina, Ohio, and then we moved to Dayton, OH, in 1987, where we stayed for fifteen years. Mark was born on December 24, 1990, and Jeremy was born on March 21, 1996. From Dayton, we moved to Affton, MO, near St. Louis, in 2002, and then to Salem, IL, in 2008, where we now reside.
None of these mothers was or is perfect, but all four of them were or are godly women, as described by the wise man: “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life….Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.’ Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:10-31). I certainly praise these four “mothers in Israel.”
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