Did the marriage occur in 51 or 57?. Walker chart and internet do not agree.

In the Walker family bible: My loved and devoted wife, passed away from this earth to dwell with our Saviour whom she loved so well & served so long on the 20th day of March (Sunday) 1904, after living with her husband 53 years and one month & eight days, she died in Norfolk at the home of my son Dr. R. H. Walker & is buried here.

Obiturary: On the Lord’s day March 20, one of the most prominent and impressive figures in our Virginia brotherhood entered upon the rest that remaineth for the people of God. The well-known and well-beloved Mrs. Dolly Walker of King and Queen county, fell asleep in Christ. At the ripe age of 73, for 61 years a Christian, for 53 years a wife, the mother of 11 children and grandmother of 21, 40 years a Sunday-school teacher and 40 years leader of the service of song in the Smyrna church, her hand has been in every good work and her influence has been felt far and wide. Seven of her children survive her, and one of them, my old classmate in Bethany, Dr. R. Temple Walker, is president of the Florida christian Missionary society, another is the wife of the efficient pastore of the Norfolk churh, J. T. T. Hundley, and still another, Dr. Roland Walker, is an elder in the same congregation. Edward B. Bagby, of this city, is her nephew. She was one of three who became members of the C.W.B. M. when ist clai=ms were first presented in Virginia at the General Missionary Convention in 1876. She was a regular attendant with her husband at the district and state missionary conventions and was thoroughly devoted to the cause of her Master and liberal is her gifts for the advancement of his kingdom.

Originally a Baptist, the daughter of Richard and Dorothy Ann Bagby , of King and Queen county, she was married to Dr. Bernard H. Walker, Feb. 12, 1851, a member of Smyrna Christian church. Before their marriage she proposed that he should go with her two Sundays in each month and that she should worship with him the other two Sundays at Smyrna. He said, deeply as he loved her, he could not consent to such an arrangement, as it would be against his convictions of duty; that he would always be glad to have her go with him, and when she wished to go to her own church he would provide a way for her to do so. She replied: “I honor you for your adherence to what you regard as you Christian duty, feeling sure that if you were not true to you obligations to your God, you would not be true to your obligations as a husband.” After marriage they studied the Scriptures together, praying for light and guidance and in six months, unsolicited, she expressed her desire to unite with Smyrna church. From that time to the close of her life she worked with her good husband for the upbuilding of the cause she had espoused. He has been for two score years an elder in the church and together they have labored and together rejoiced.

My frist pastorate was with that congregation. I had many opportunities during the two years to observe the strong faith and bright hope, the noble, generous nture and consistent Christian walk, the charity and missionary zeal and loyalty and deep devotion of this most excellent Christian woman. She and her husband were among my chief helpers. They were in the Lord, they labored in the Lord, they labored much in the Lord. The prophecy that King Lemuel’s mother taught him was abundantly realized in her. Strength and manna were her clothing. She opened her mouth of wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness. She stretched out her hands to the poor, then she reached forth her hands to the needy. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her. Suddenly on the morning of the Lord’s day shewas taken. The church in Norfolk was planning for a meeting. Although she knew of her husband’s deep interest, she could not help adding: “Doctor, are you praying for the meeting?” She had been in declinging health, but was preparing to go to church when stricken. Her last works, just fifteen minutes before she breathed her last, were: “I’ll speak the honors of His name with my last laboring breath. And dying clasp Him to my breast The antidote of death.”

The Old Guard dies, but it never surrenders. Of what unspeakable value are such heroic souls in this restless age!