Life

DAR names 'Person of the Year'

Bessie Bright (left) presents DAR award to Sandra Walker.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 23, 2012

Sandra Walker, who has been arranging flowers for more than 40 years and has owned her own shop for 34, was honored last week for years of serving the community through volunteerism.

The Abraham Kuykendall Chapter of NSDAR each year recognizes a community leader who has made outstanding voluntary achievements in cultural, educational, humanitarian, patriotic and citizenship work in Henderson County. The DAR chapter named Walker the DAR Person of the Year 2012 for her participation in many community activities.
A native of Henderson County and graduate of Edneyville High School, Sandra Burgess
Walker said playing on the powerful Edneyville basketball teams in the mid-'60s was a formative experience. When she was a youngster, the legendary girls basketball coach Tom Pryor would survey girls on the playground and decide which ones he needed for basketball.
"He motioned me over there and said, 'You're Beaver and Junior's little sister, aren't you?'" When she said yes, Pryor said, "You will play basketball." Forty-five years later, she still gets together with her teammates.
The mother of three children, Stephen, Stephanie and Jeffrey, and grandmother of seven, Walker has been active in more than a dozen civic clubs and organizations.
"If I'm not working I'm volunteering," she said.
A member of the Jaycettes from 1972 to 1985, she served as president in 1980-1981. She has been a member of the Business and Professional Women's Organization since 1976, serving as president and vice president and a state board member for three terms. She helped raise scholarship money for the local organization for 20 years, funding two $500 scholarships each year.

She was a member of the Henderson County Council for Women for several years and received the Henderson County Woman of Distinction Award in 2001. She has served on the board of directors of the Hendersonville Merchants Association since 1995 and is the current president.

She was recipient of the Clifton Shipman Community Service Award and grand marshal of the Christmas Parade in 2011. She is part of the Elks Lodge DOES and is past junior counselor, senior counselor and current first counselor. She attends Mud Creek Baptist Church.

Walker is a member of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary 5206, serving as Junior Vice President and currently as Senior Vice President. She was named the VFW Ladies Auxiliary Woman of the Year 2010. She was a volunteer fundraiser for the Edneyville Community Center Organization in 2007-2009.

She has served president and vice president of the Historic 7th Avenue District Revitalization Committee, serving on the board since 1996. She also serves as Moore's Grove Precinct chair for the Republican Party.