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Marianne Cascio Walker
Marianne Cascio Walker, died on Thursday, September 5, 2024, under the care of St. Anthony’s Hospice, who provided medical care and support, along with her daughters Beth, Trisha, and Amy, who took leave from their families, work and homes to provide support for all her needs 24 hours a day so she could remain in her home where she was most happy. Marianne was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was also a cook, a gardener, a painter, a friend, an educator, co-founder of St. Anthony’s Hospice, author of many articles, and four non-fiction books, the first of which was translated and published into Japanese and Latvian.
She was born on August 15, 1933, in Monroe, Louisiana, where she lived with her parents Joseph Dominic and Rose Spatafora Cascio and younger brother J.D., her only sibling, until she left for college at St. Mary’s Dominican in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father, who owned and operated the Monroe Tire Exchange in Monroe for seventy years died in 1989, and her mother, in 1954.
During her second year at St. Mary’s, she fell in love with Ulvester Walker, a young Tulane law student from Henderson, Kentucky. The following year, they married, continued their respective studies, and received their degrees: hers a Bachelor of Science and his a law degree. In 1957, they moved to Henderson where her husband established his law career and she, her teaching.
Her first year teaching, she taught fifth grade at the old Central School. The following year, she was assigned to Henderson County High, where she taught English for several years. In 1969, she resigned from teaching and during that time she earned her Masters’ degree in the Humanities in 1976, with majors in philosophy and literature, from the University of Evansville. The fall of the same years, she began teaching English, world literature and philosophy courses at the Henderson Community College, a branch of the University of Kentucky at that time. She loved teaching and the subjects she taught and always said she was a better student than teacher. One student said, “She wanted us to learn more than we wanted to learn.”
During her tenure at the college, she developed continuing education courses in subjects as diverse as Thoreau, food safety, and hospice. In the late 1970’s when medical science was quickly moving far ahead of medical ethics, a new philosophical study named bioethics was being developed by renowned philosophers at the Hastings Center in New York. She discovered and studied their writings and attended their seminars. Seeing a need for including such an ethics course at HCC she developed and received approval in 1981, for a three-hour, transferable, undergraduate credit course- Moral Issues in Health Care- to be included in the curriculum. It was the first undergraduate bioethics class in the state area. The letters she received from administrators in other surrounding colleges thrilled her.
Around this same time, she also learned about the hospice philosophy- an ancient philosophy that had been revived in England but new to America. A local Methodist minister, John Conn, was the first to talk about hospice here. He wanted to establish a hospice for Henderson County and asked if she would help by teaching hospice philosophy as a continuing education class. He believed that if the community were educated about hospice, they would support one. She agreed and was always grateful for the opportunity to be involved in this important movement. The classes had large enrollments and from those classes emerged a small group that worked to form St. Anthony’s Hospice. Needing a fundraiser for the fledgling hospice, she made arrangements with the famous Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross to visit our area to speak. Ross’s book ON DEATH AND DYING had revolutionized the way dying patients were being treated in the United States. She was an important person in the world at that time. It was one of the highlights of Marianne’s life to talk with Dr. Ross, to convince her to help and then to visit our home. On March 28, 1984, Dr. Ross spoke to a packed Vanderburgh Auditorium in Evansville. She and Dr. Ross remained close friends.
During her teaching career at Henderson Community College she received several awards, including the University of Kentucky Alumni Association 1994 Great Teacher Award, the first at a Community College in Kentucky to receive it. She served as board member of the Kentucky Humanities Council, St. Anthony’s Hospice, and as a member of Methodist Hospital Bioethics Committee.
In 1984, after her children were all grown, she began writing articles for the Louisville Courier Journal Sunday Magazine and other publications, and then went on to write her first book, a biography of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind. She wrote three other subsequent books.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother J.D. Cascio, Jr.
Survivors include her husband of 70 years, Ulvester Walker, her son Christopher Walker of Henderson, KY, her daughter Carol Bailey of Westfield, IN, her daughter Patricia Corino and her husband Michael of Henderson, KY, her daughter Amy Jones and her husband Tom of Beattyville, KY; five grandchildren: Elizabeth Barnett and her husband Scott of Noblesville, IN, William Bailey and his wife Jennifer of Fishers, IN, Walker Jones of Beattyville, KY, and Caroline Corino and Dominic Corino of Henderson, KY, and five great-grandchildren: Jade Barnett, Kyliee Barnett, Liam Barnett, River Bailey, and Quin Bailey.
Toward the end, she often said how grateful she was for her parents and her upbringing, and for her husband, children, and everyone who had influenced her life in some way, and for everything that she had experienced. She said she had found life to be just as Cicero wrote in Senectute- “each advancing year of life should be more satisfying than the ones that have gone before..”
In honoring her wishes, we will have a private family burial.
Expressions of sympathy may take form of donations to St. Anthony’s Hospice, 2410 S. Green, St., Henderson, KY, 42420, to any local animal shelter, or to Kentucky Educational Television (KET), 600 Cooper Drive, Lexington, KY, 40502.
Arrangements entrusted to Benton-Glunt & Tapp Funeral Home, A Life Celebration® Home, online condolences may be made at www.bentongluntandtappfuneralhome.com.
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