Diana 'Deedee' Walker dies; longtime library clerk was 69

Diana "Deedee" Walker, a longtime library clerk and unofficial community mayor in Lakeview, died at home from a heart attack earlier this month.

She was 69.

A service was held for her Saturday at Thomas A. Glynn & Son Funeral Home in Rockville Centre, followed by burial at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.

"She was well known and well respected in the community," said Jack Prophet, a longtime Democratic political figure in the area.

Walker, who lived all of her life in Lakeview, graduated from Malverne High School in 1966 and the now-defunct Adelphi Business School in Mineola in 1973. She also attended Nassau Community College, her family said. From 1973 to 1980 she held a variety of positions at the now-closed Kuzuri Youth Center in New Cassel.

She joined the Lakeview Public Library staff in 1981 as a clerk-typist.

In his written paean to Walker, library board president Michael Alexander said when he joined the library in 1997 it had a director but Walker was the "go-to" person. "The one you asked if you wanted to know anything about the library . . . and she kept all of us in line.

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"She was the summer reading programmer long before we had a children's librarian. There are many local kids that she kept in line, both in and out of the library . . . [and] they're better for it."

Library director Ruby Boykins said she found Walker so helpful when she took over in late 2008, "I couldn't believe she had been here so long and knew so much. I encouraged her to take the senior clerk test. She did, and passed it in 2011."

She retired August 30, 2013, and came back part time the next day.

Daughter Michelle Ridley Walker of Lakeview said her mother was "always ready to help anyone from the community -- adults as well as children. Her stated goal in life was 'to make a difference.' "

She added, "She loved the library and she loved the community, and she wanted each to enhance the other."

Walker's survivors also include daughter Lisa Austin Walker; seven sisters, Joanne, Natalie, Valerie, Frances, Rhea "Laurie," Sharon and Jayne; two brothers, Nathaniel "Poppie" and Michael, all Walkers of Lakeview; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.