Cornelia Parsly Walton, a retired nurse and expert gardener, dies at 87
Mrs. Walton had health challenges, but they didn't stop her from gardening at Cathedral Village in Roxborough. She and her husband moved there in 2002. Her gardens were featured on garden club tours and the community's brochure.
Cornelia Parsly Walton, 87, formerly of Spring House, a retired nurse and expert gardener who led several civic horticultural projects in the Philadelphia area, died Friday, June 26, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at Cathedral Village, Roxborough.
Known as “Cornie,” Mrs. Walton was born in Philadelphia to Hester Anderson and Lewis Fuller Parsly. She grew up in Chestnut Hill and graduated from the Springside School in 1950, then earned a nursing degree from the Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing in 1953.
She married John Walton in 1955. She worked as a nurse in the Pennsylvania Hospital operating suite from 1953 until leaving to start a family in 1957.
The Waltons built homes in Ambler and, later, Spring House, where the couple and their three daughters developed close, ongoing friendships with neighbors.
In the summers, the family vacationed in Beach Haven, N.J. Mrs. Walton enjoyed sailing, helping run sailboat races, and dancing with her husband to band music on Saturday nights under the stars.
After raising her children, Mrs. Walton went back to work as a staff nurse for Chestnut Hill Hospital’s surgical center. She stayed until retiring.
“She adored her coworkers and felt fortunate to be a member of that team,” her family said in a statement.
Anyone looking for Mrs. Walton at her Montgomery County home was apt to find her digging in the garden, and planting, weeding, and pruning flowers.
But she also helped with gardens elsewhere. “You would find her weeding a flower box on Germantown Avenue,” said daughter Frida. “She did gardens in Beach Haven.”
In 2002, when she and her husband moved to Cathedral Village, Mrs. Walton kept gardening. She took on several garden and landscape projects on the retirement community’s grounds, some of which were featured in the village’s brochure.
She assembled volunteers to create a winter garden and bring residents’ outdoor plants into the village’s hallways for careful tending during the cold season.
She was an active member of the Wissahickon Garden Club, her family said, and continued mentoring younger members.
“She and her tiny but perfect garden here at Cathedral Village was once on a spring garden tour of the Wissahickon Garden Club,” said her friend Judith Borie.
“I knew her very well, and she was a brave, determined, and delightful woman. If the plants weren’t thriving, she told John, ‘Yank that one out. It’s not doing its job.‘”
She also organized a group of volunteers to care for the Physic Garden at Pennsylvania Hospital. The garden was begun in 1774 to provide physicians with a source of ingredients for medicines, then declined somewhat, and was revitalized in 1976 as part of a Bicentennial project.
Mrs. Walton was a graduate of the Arboretum School of the Barnes Foundation and an award-winning exhibitor and volunteer at the Philadelphia Flower Show.
She was a member of the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Chestnut Hill, where she served on the vestry, pastoral care team, and the lay weeders, a group that did gardening on church property. She was a compassionate volunteer with Wissahickon Hospice and a member of the craft show committee of the Highlands Historical Society in Fort Washington.
Mrs. Walton enjoyed drawing and painting, taking photographs, doing needlepoint, and hunting for seashells during trips to Sanibel, Fla. She had a knack for writing clever verses to celebrate special occasions with friends.
“You could count on Cornie to celebrate every occasion with a rhyming piece of what she called doggerel,” Borie said. “‘They certainly aren’t poems, but they rhyme,' she once told me.”
Frida Walton said: “I admired my mother so much. She and my dad had a beautiful life together founded on family, community, and people connecting with each other.”
In addition to her husband and daughter, Mrs. Walton is survived by daughters Betsy Duryea and Cindy Stauffer; five grandchildren; and a twin brother.
Burial is private. A celebration of life will be held later.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martins Lane, Philadelphia, Pa. 19118.