Gloria Pearl Walker

Gloria Pearl Walker, of Rolla, peacefully entered her eternal rest and reward on June 10, 2026, at the age of 90. She was born February 2, 1936, at her grandmother’s home in Flat, MO, to the late Leo (Singer) Heimbaugh and the late Edna (Brown) Heimbaugh. She will always be remembered as a sweet, kind, funny, and beautiful soul.

Gloria dedicated her life to Christ at age sixteen and was a devoted Christian raising her children in the faith. She dearly loved her church family at the Rolla Church of Christ and very much enjoyed communicating with friends and family through handwritten letters after she became homebound.

In addition to daughters Linda and Donna, she had four stair-stepped granddaughters who are the mothers of her 16 great-grandchildren. She enjoyed visiting with and learning about them and never let a birthday pass without sending a beautifully handwritten card that expressed her love and conveyed her admiration for them as good daughters, wives and mothers.

Gloria diligently studied in school and was an excellent student. This allowed her to skip two grades and graduate near the top of her class. She had a remarkable memory and was able to recall dates, places, names, and events in detail throughout her life. Her working life was spent in secretarial work and residential cleaning. For several years she enjoyed working with the ladies at her church Day School and helping in the toddlers’ Bible class.

Gloria was truly an artist at heart and expressed this through her music, drawing, and beautiful handwriting. She was a talented “picker and grinner” who played with family and friends as well as working paid gigs in her teens. Self-taught and playing by ear, she mastered the guitar, piano, organ, fiddle, mandolin, and French harp. Gloria admired the standard “Bluegrass Virtuosos” from her early years and marveled at their playing speed and accuracy. In later years she and Albert enjoyed live bluegrass shows, but in the 60's and 70's, on Saturday nights you would find Gloria in the kitchen jig dancing along to the Grand Ole Opry as she washed the supper dishes. She was known to collect what she called “good information” and was always eager to learn something she thought might be very useful to know. Always concerned that her handwriting on cards and letters to friends be as perfect as it could be, she employed buckets of white-out to allow a re-do of anything that didn’t meet her aesthetic. Gloria carefully wrote favorite recipes for new brides, left her children’s baby books filled and informative, and faithfully recorded things in small notebooks that had happened to people she cared about so she wouldn’t forget.

Preceding her in death was husband, Albert Walker in 2013; son, Alvin Walker in 1974; sister, Florene Reichard; and her parents.

Gloria is survived by daughters Linda (Denny) Radford and Donna (David) Roberts of Rolla; granddaughters Ashley (Matthew) Kreyling of Rolla, Savannah (Ryan) Clark of Bolivar, Alicia (Josh) Gerrels of Robertsville, and Sierra Radford of Springfield. Grandchildren Raphael, Ignatius, Theodora, and Wilhemina Kreyling; Ella, Landry, Gracelyn, and Addyson Clark; Micah, Lydia, Jonah, Rhoda, Martha, and Hannah Gerrels; Brooklyn and Cheyenne Keaster. Brothers Lloyd (Mary) Heimbaugh and Lonnie (Retha) Heimbaugh, of Rolla. She is also survived by many beloved nieces, nephews, and friends.

We would like to thank the Delbert Day Cancer Institute, Phelps Health Home Health & Hospice, and Presbyterian Manor for their kind, gentle, and excellent care of our beloved mother the last four years.

A visitation and Celebration of Life will be held at the Rolla Church of Christ, Highway E on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m., followed by a Celebration of Life at 11:00 a.m. The family kindly requests that, in place of flowers, donations be made in Gloria Pearl Walker’s name to Gospel Chariot. Checks may be mailed to Rolla Church of Christ, P.O. Box 291 with ‘In memory of Gloria Pearl Walker written on the memo line.”