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Hazel M. Walton
HAZEL M. WALTON
Cedar Rapids
Hazel M. Walton, 90, of Keystone, formerly of Cedar Rapids, passed away Monday, Oct. 18, 2021, at the Keystone Nursing Care Center. Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Saint Wenceslaus Catholic Church, 1224 Fifth St. SE, Cedar Rapids, by Father Aaron Junge. Burial will be at Oak Hill Cemetery, Belle Plaine. Visitation will be Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m., with a 4:30 p.m. rosary at Papich-Kuba Funeral Home East, 1228 Second St. SE. A visitation will also be from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday at the church
Hazel was born June 11, 1931, in Watkins, Iowa, to John and Marie Becker, and was one of 16 children. After graduating from Norway High School, she worked as a telephone operator in Cedar Rapids and as a waitress in Amana.
Hazel married Raymond Walton on May 27, 1952, and moved to San Diego, Calif., where Ray served four years in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Afterwards, his job at IBM took them to upstate New York, then Madison, Wis., and back to upstate New York, then Omaha, Neb., and finally to Rochester, Minn., where Ray died from cancer in 1966.
Hazel and Ray had five children: Keith Allen, Kathy Rae, Dyan Marie, Dale Lee and Jim Edward.
Hazel moved the family back to rural Iowa in the Marengo-Blairstown area, after Ray's death. Once the kids were grown, Hazel took horticulture classes at Kirkwood College and raised tomatoes commercially in a Hydroponics Greenhouse.
For the last 20 years of her working career, Hazel performed Home Health Care, was part of the catering department at Mercy Medical Center and served as an usher at both the Old Creamery Theatre and Theatre Cedar Rapids. Hazel enjoyed traveling throughout her life all over the United States and had been to eight countries in Europe and to Mexico.
Hazel is survived by her four children (one deceased), five grandchildren (one deceased), six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brothers, Glenn, Richard and Fred Becker; and sisters, Rosemary Thompson, Shirley Hall and Dorothy Elgas.
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