Smith Family: Captain (Ret) Grant Joseph Walker

(1) Grant & Mary Jane Scoles Walker (2) Captain Walker (3) In retirement

I started genealogy late in life. By the time I started most of the people I wanted to talk to had passed
away. In the case of Mary Jane Scoles, a cousin of mine through William Custer Smith, her husband, US Navy Captain Grant J. Walker, was still alive in his 90s with a clear mind and a pleasant way.

I worked through one of his daughters to get an interview with him and I spent about an hour taking him through his life and that of his family.  He told a great story and had a fascinating military life. He was very generous to tell his tale to a complete stranger and I really connected with him.  When I asked him what he was doing these days, he said in a totally self-deprecating way, "Well, I used to play poker, but everyone died."

I learned this week that he passed away at 96, surrounded by his family. 

I will direct you to the published portion of the interview here.

Thank you for your service, Captain Grant, and may you rest in peace.

Captain (Ret) Grant Joseph Walker, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on January 23, 2021.

Grant was born in Ramey, PA to the late Grant Joel Walker and Cecilia Knappage Walker, on December 16, 1925. Grant was preceded in death by his first wife, Mary Jane Scoles Walker; second wife, Dorothy Guyton Walker and brother, Walter Walker. 

Grant’s strong sense of values and his emphasis on family has left a lasting impact on us all. He was survived by 4 daughters, 2 step-children, 10 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, 1 great-great-granddaughter and close friend, Fran Morris. 

Grant had a successful career serving in the U.S. Navy for 33 years and retired in 1976. He attended Pennsylvania State University, Georgia Tech, and Columbia University. 

He instructed at the CIC Officers School in Glenview, IL and at the U.S. Navy War College in Newport, RI. He served aboard the USS Chandeuler (AV-10), USS Rockingham (APA-229), USS Yosemite (AD-19), USS Newport News (CA-148), USS Cecil (DRR-835), and served as the commanding officer of the USS Joseph K. Taussig (DE-1030), USS Waddell (DDG-24) and the USS Coronado (LPD-11). His final tour was Commanding Officer, SURFLANT, Inactive Ships, Norfolk, VA . 

Grant will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and his church family at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church. He was an active member and attended St. Andrew’s for over 50 years. He served in leadership positions, sang in the choir, and was a life member of the United Methodist Men. Grant was also a proud member of Osceola Lodge #515 Free and Accepted Masons of PA. 

Grant’s legacy of love, loyalty, and laughter will live on through all who knew and loved him. A viewing will be held at Smith & Williams Funeral Home, 4889 Princess Anne Rd, Virginia Beach on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, from 5-7:30pm. Due to Covid restrictions, a Celebration of Grant’s Life will take place this summer. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 717 Tucson Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23462. 

Captain Grant & Mrs Mary Jane Scoles Walker

Mary Jane Scoles Walker

JACOB SMITH > WILLIAM CUSTER SMITH > WALTER SMITH > MINNIE SMITH m Charles Scoles > MARY JANE SCOLES m Capt Grant Walker

Mary Jane Scoles was the youngest child of Minnie Luella Smith and Charles Scoles. She was born 20 Aug 1927 in Bradford, Chickasaw County, Iowa. As a high school senior, she was chosen as a Queen entrant at the North Iowa Band Festival in Mason City by her class band from Nashua high school. She was a member of both the concert and marching bands, glee club, and mixed chorus and was also the state champion student band director. She was also an attendant to the Nashua High Homecoming Queen as a senior. Immediately after graduation, she belonged to The Majel Club, a social club of young women of the Congregational Church in 1946/1947 and served as secretary. She taught rural school for two years after graduating.

Grant Walker was the son of Mrs Celia Walker and was raised in Pennsylvania, born at Ramey and graduated from the Madera and Ramey area high school. He entered the Navy in 1943 at age 17. He attended Pennsylvania State and Georgia Tech in the Navy Y-12 program and entered midshipmen's

Capt Walker's Columbia
Roomie, Johnny Carson

training at Columbia University in March 1945.

While he was at Columbia Midshipmen's School, his roommate was young Johnny Carson. Captain Walker said, "He was in love with his high school sweetheart, who he later married. We only had Saturday night to go out to drink and he had his friends and I had mine. We got along just fine though."

He was commissioned in July 1945 and first assigned to the USS Chandeuer, a seaplane tender. Then, he was transferred to the USS Rockingham, a Haskell-class attack transport.

While on that ship, they were doing atomic bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll late 1945/1946. He was aboard the ship during the test blasts and also was required to take radioactivity readings on the various test ships (he said, "Some sunk, some didn't.") Captain Walker said they weren't allowed to look directly toward the blast, but had to turn their backs and protect their eyes, but post-blast, he could see the mushroom cloud.

Grant & Mary Jane's
Wedding

Mary Jane's sister Margaret had married Dale Williamson and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Mary Jane moved to Atlanta and got a job as a reservations agent for Eastern Airlines. One night, she went out with some others girls from work and went to a bar. That night, Grant Walker, USN, was there too. He had been attending a chemical warfare school in Alabama and had come to Atlanta for a weekend of fun. He had decided to ask one of Mary Jane's group to dance, but by the time he got over there, she got up and left and he was left standing there. So, he asked Mary Jane to dance.

The couple married on 28 May 1953 in Atlanta and began their lives as a Navy family. Each year, they would come to Nashua/Plainfield for a visit with family. He recalls Minnie, Mary Jane's mother, as a bit aloof and difficult to know. She "had her opinions and those were her opinions," he said. Betty Smith Hahn and her husband Lee lived next door to Minnie. Betty was Minnie's adopted sister.

He attended Naval War College in 1963 and was in the same class as Jeremiah Denton, who was a POW for eight horrific years and later served as Senator of Alabama and Sam Gravely, the first African-American Admiral in the US Navy.

Commander Jeremiah Denton

Grant's career flourished. He, over the course of his career, commanded four ships. At the apex, he did three tours in Vietnam as Skipper of the USS Waddell, an Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer, beginning in 1966. During his time there, he recalls not only being fired upon, but firing back, and said his ship was the first to fire north of the South Vietnam border.

His last command was as Skipper of the USS Coronado, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock (LPD) built with additional superstructure for command ship duties. Keel was laid 01 May 1965 and she was commissioned 23 May 1970. Walker was its first Skipper. Captain Walker recalls that in the time it took him to get the ship underway and to its next port, his wife Mary Jane had driven the girls cross-country to Virginia Beach and found a church and joined before he got there. He said, "I didn't get any choice in church, but I'm a Methodist anyway, so it was fine."

Captain Grant Walker, USN

He retired in 1976. Sadly, his wife Mary Jane died months later on 25 May 1977 in Virginia Beach. She died at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital of encephalitis. She had suffered from leukemia for the previous four years.

The couple had four daughters, two of whom reside near him and the other two are only a couple hours away. He has eight grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

Captain Walker remarried after ten years alone to Dorothy, who preceded him in death in 2007 of cancer. He likes to sing in the church choir at St Andrew's Methodist Church, to which he's belonged since 1970. His daughters sing in the choir with him. In earlier days, he was very active in  the community with organizations like the Red Cross and as president of the Civic League, but he mostly takes it easy these days. He still plays poker with the folks in his 40-year-old poker club, though Captain Walker says, "Five had died."  Captain Walker is 91 this year but still goes to the Outer Banks with his kids every year and sees them frequently-a situation he likes just fine.

USS Waddell