Dan Walker, hardworking family man

LAST NOV. 15, Gregory Burnside gave his father a surprise "18th birthday" party, complete with decorated cake and presents.

His father, Dan Walker, who was really 81, was delighted by the twist his son had given to his age because Dan always loved a good joke. He had a sense of humor that would not quit and that he indulged to the last.

"I always told him he had a 'Cool Hand Luke' smile," Gregory said. "He was smiling until his dying breath."

Dan Walker, a retired painter and maintenance man for Hahnemann University Hospital who was so skilled and hardworking that doctors and hospital officials were always getting him to work on their houses, a Marine veteran and devoted family man, died Monday. He lived in Southwest Philadelphia.

Dan wasn't the kind of father who tossed around the word "love" very much, but he made it clear by his actions that he loved his children and would make any sacrifice for them.

He worked two or three jobs to support his family and would come home exhausted and soon be asleep. On the weekends, he and his cronies would gather around a table in his home to drink, talk, laugh and play cards. That was his relaxation.

Dan was born in Augusta, Ga., to Stewart and Annalou Walker. He was bused to a Catholic school and got a decent education in an era when Southern public schools were segregated and the schools for blacks were not exactly "separate but equal."

He was married at 17 to the late Louise Avery, a neighborhood girl who was 14. They had two children.

He joined the Marines before World War II and was given a hardship discharge because Louise was pregnant.

Dan came to Philadelphia in 1946 to join his father, who was already here. He went to work for Hahnemann shortly thereafter and became a member of Hospital Workers Local 1199C.

In about 1955, he met Helen Burnside and they moved in together. They had three boys. She died in 1995.

"He liked to work," Gregory said. "He would take us on his jobs. I would put down drop-cloths, do puttying. We had teamwork."

Every Fourth of July, he would fly back to Georgia, where two sisters, Rosa and Ethel Williams, who married twins, still live. An uncle operated a still.

They would have a pig roast and renew old acquaintances.

Dan walked to work from Southwest Philadelphia every day. He didn't drive a car and wouldn't take a bus.

"He thought as long as you could get somewhere by walking, that was the way to go," his son said.

He was also big on budgeting. He budgeted his time and his money. Every week, he bought a carton of Pall Malls and they had to last him to the next payday.

As a father, Dan didn't have to say much to get his children to do the right thing. "He always explained why he was disciplining us, so he didn't have to do it very much," Gregory said.

Dan knew how to put on the Southern charm, but he was not one to alter his personality or behavior to suit a particular person or situation. He was always the same guy. What you saw was what you got.

"It was inspiring to be with him," Gregory said. "He was my buddy."

During his final days, father and son got to bond with each other and talked about their lives together.

"He gave up in a nice kind of way," Gregory said. "He wanted to be with my mother.

"I have a lot of work to do to try to fill his shoes."

Besides his son and sisters, Dan also is survived by a daughter, Carolyn; another son, Dan Burnside; three stepchildren, Frank, Helen and Gilbert Burnside; an adopted daughter, Lori Benson; two brothers, John Henry and Charles Walker; 32 grandchildren, and 27 great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by sons Jim Walker and Stephon Burnside.

Services: 11 a.m. Friday at the Julian V. Hawkins Funeral Home, 5308 Haverford Ave. Friends may call at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Eden Cemetery, Collingdale. *