Margery L. Walker of San Saba, Texas, walked in beauty into the presence of God on Monday, March 25, 2024. She was a resident of Western Hills Nursing Home in Comanche at the time of her passing.

Interment will be held at 2:00 pm Monday April 1, 2024, at the San Saba City Cemetery.

Margery, a full-blood Native American of the Santee Sioux and Navajo tribes, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on April 9, 1933. Her parents were George Wilson and Margaret Howard Wilson. Following the untimely death of her mother, she was adopted by a Baptist minister and his wife, the Reverend Clinton E. Lancaster and Stella Brown Lancaster of San Saba, and Margery came to live with them there. She learned to play the piano at the age of five and played at numerous church services and revivals while growing up on their farm at Pecan Grove, located a few miles outside of San Saba.

Margery graduated from San Saba High School in 1950, and then attended Baylor University, where she majored in music education, and when she walked across the stage to receive her bachelor’s degree diploma, she made history by becoming the first full-blood Native American to graduate from that prestigious institution. She would be honored for that accomplishment many years later.

Following her graduation from Baylor, she entered the field of education, where she had a wide-ranging career as a schoolteacher, music teacher, and choir director in varied locations such as San Saba and Llano, Texas, Chinle and Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, Crownpoint, New Mexico, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Always seeking better ways to serve the needs of children, Margery went back to school herself, earning her master’s degree in educational administration from Penn State University in 1985. After that she became a principal at the Kickapoo Nation Indian School in Powhattan, Kansas, and she also traveled to Sitka, Alaska, where she worked as a curriculum developer, helping to integrate Native American culture into the mainframe curriculum that served members of the Tlingit tribe.

She eventually retired to San Saba with her husband, Alfred Jack Walker, but she continued to be active in local church and club activities, playing the piano or organ for services and weddings, and donating her time to teach elementary music classes at Sidney School.

Margery was preceded in death by her husband, Alfred Jack Walker, and her adoptive parents, Reverend Clinton E. Lancaster, and wife, Stella Brown Lancaster, and birth parents, George Wilson and wife, Margaret Howard Wilson, and three siblings.

She is survived by daughter Jayne Lindsey of Blanket, Texas, granddaughter Fawn Perry of Blanket, granddaughter Starla Hidrogo and husband Jeremy Hidrogo of Comanche, Texas, great-granddaughter Alexia Reyna of Blanket, and great-granddaughter Aubrey Hidrogo of Comanche.

Her life touched and enriched the lives of so many; she truly epitomized the goal of her Native American people – to walk in beauty throughout her life.

Arrangements are under the direction of Blaylock Funeral Home of Brownwood.