Nancy Alberta Walker Carpenter

Biography

Nancy Alberta Walker built a long life around teaching and the institutions of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, near the Rhode Island border. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 10, 1920 to Hugh Albert Walker and Cynthia Hixon, she attended Lincoln School and Skidmore College before graduating from Lesley College. Her education led into classroom work: her obituary credits her with twelve years at North Rehoboth School and another twelve at the Wheeler School in Providence.

Teaching was one strand of a broader involvement in local life. Nancy belonged to the Rehoboth Garden Club from 1949, the year she married Joseph Carpenter. She was a life member of the Rehoboth Antiquarian Society, whose responsibilities include the Carpenter Museum and Blanding Public Library, and served on the board of the Rehoboth Historical Society. Those memberships connected her with gardening, local history, books and the preservation of the town's material past.

Nancy also belonged to the Boston Weavers' Guild and the Handicraft Club. Her interests extended beyond a single profession while remaining rooted in organizations in which she could participate over many years.

Her family included her daughter Polly Jane. Nancy died on June 7, 2013, aged ninety-two.

Nancy graduated from Lincoln School. Her siblings were Marian W. Maupin, Alice W. Dunn, Mary Louise W. Durgin, Norman A. Walker and Edmund H. Walker. The obituary gives her husband’s name as Joseph Allan Carpenter Jr. and their daughter’s as Polly Jane Carpenter.

The burial listing associates Nancy Alberta Walker Carpenter with Village Cemetery, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States.