Gwendolyn Pompey Walker was "a caregiver - on a scale of 1 to 10, she was a 10-plus," said her friend, Norma Ewing of Carbondale. "She was a very decent lady at heart and a genuine lady."

"She was such a compassionate person," agreed Ann Marie Walker of Makanda, another friend.

Walker, 66, whose late husband, James Walker, was president of Southern Illinois University, died Thursday in the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Her husband died in 2006 after a long battle with cancer.

The Walkers had met in Atlanta, where James Walker was teaching and pursuing his master's degree. He earned a doctorate in special education in 1972 and became an assistant professor of special education at SIU Edwardsville. Before coming to SIUC as president, James Walker was president of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

Though Gwen Walker had received a new lung in 1997 in a transplant surgery, her other lung didn't function because of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Fortunately, her body did not reject the transplanted organ. She was an advocate of organ transplant programs.

Yet, Ewing said, you would never know Gwen Walker had her own health problems, as she cared for her husband, her friends and others who needed help.

Trained as a special education teacher, she "just came alive when kids were around," Ewing said. She was a board member of the Women's Center, an active supporter of the Southern Illinois Symphony and had headed the "A Book in Every Home" program that gave children books.

And her real joy, Ewing said, was serving as a Big Sister in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program at Southern Illinois Regional Social Services, in which volunteers serve as mentors for children at risk. "She was so passionate about that," Shepherd agreed.

"She had a Little Sister who lived in Du Quoin. She took her out to dinner at Tom's Place, took her to the circus, to the Du Quoin State Fair," Ewing said said. "They spent a lot of time at Gwen's house. She even got all the ingredients, and they made a gingerbread house together." Walker spent at least two or three years as the child's Big Sister, Ewing said.

Ewing said she had received a voice mail from Walker shortly before she died but didn't get a chance to respond. "Gwen always ended her voice mail messages with 'I love you,'" she said.

Candis Isberner of Carbondale said, "We were good friends and neighbors. She was a trooper. I call her a miracle woman," adding that Walker was creative, fun-loving and above all, "giving to others."

"She supported her husband and family in spite of her own illness. She was a very strong woman."

Isberner said, "We played a lot of golf," sometimes just the two women, other times with their husbands.

After James Walker died, Gwen stayed in Carbondale a year before making plans. She was wise enough not to make hasty decisions, Isberner said.

Eventually Walker moved to Hillsborough, N.C., home of her daughter, Jabrina Walker Robinson, husband, Andrew, and two grandsons. Her other daughter, Jamell Walker, lives in New Orleans.

Memorials can be made to Project HELP at MTSU, or to the Minority Organ Transplant and Tissue Education Program.

"Jamell, Gwen's baby daughter, is getting married on Sept. 13," said Shepherd, saddened that the young woman now will have neither her mother nor her father to share her joy.

Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday in St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., with visitation from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Ewing said.

linda.rush@thesouthern.com

351-5079