Constance Virginia Walters

Constance “Connie” V. Walters, a seventy year resident of Riverside, passed away peacefully in the early evening on February 1st, 2015, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She was 93. Connie was born April 19, 1921 in Utica, New York. She grew up with her sisters in San Bernardino California with their parents, Harry Mann and Julia Sias Everett.

Connie graduated from St. Bernadine’s high school and then, like many women of the time, took a job to support our efforts during World War II. She was an aircraft assembler at Norton Air Force Base where she worked on the underbelly ball turrets of B-29 bomber aircraft. During this time she met and married her lifelong husband Donald L. Walters, a wartime Marine who served two tours in Guadalcanal. They were married for 53 years until his passing in 1997.

When he returned they made their home in Riverside where he worked for the So. California Gas Company until retirement and she happily became a fulltime homemaker. The couple had two sons. Connie was very active in their school life at both St. Catherine’s and Notre Dame. She was most proud of the fact that both sons served and retired from the Riverside Police Department.

In retirement she and her husband travelled throughout the United States. They enjoyed visiting the National Parks and putting on well known and attended parties especially on the 4th of July. She loved animals of all kinds, even recently nursing a baby squirrel to health and releasing it to a local park where it lives today. She was an exceptionally kind person who had a high degree of empathy for all living things.

She is survived by her sons Donald D. Walters of Hayden, Idaho and Carl R. Walters of Big Bear, California and their families which included four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Her love of children was boundless and there are many more whose lives she touched and who proudly call her “Grammy”. She is deeply missed.

Services will be held on Thursday February 26th at 10:00AM at the Acheson & Graham Garden of Prayer Mortuary on Magnolia Avenue in Riverside followed by burial at Olivewood Cemetery. A memorial reception follows at Garden of Prayer where we can all review her wonderful life.