Bernice G. Walker was born in Birmingham, Alabama on July 27, 1911 to the union of John B. Mosley and Rachel Top Mosley. She accepted Christ at an early age.
When Bernice was in her late teens, the family moved from Birmingham to Starkville, Mississippi, where she married Jesse L. Gillespie. After several years of marriage and a divorce, she left Starkville for St. Louis with her two children.
Bernice started working at Homer G. Phillips Hospital upon its opening. When her oldest son joined the Armed Services, she moved to Los Angeles with her youngest son and sister. After 20 years in Los Angeles, she married Dupree Walker and moved back to St. Louis.
In St. Louis, they went into retail sales. She was the owner of Dupree’s Playhouse, Bernice’s Milimo and Bernice’s Oasis. Her husband preceded her in death. Bernice was in various retail sale businesses for some 40 years. In 1990, she retired due to ill health.
She is survived by two sons, Jesse and Robert Gillespie; three grandaughters, Bernice Frederick (Edward) of Los Angeles, Lakita Powell of St. Louis, and Karen Gillespie of Los Angeles; four great-grandchildren, Larkin Walker of Los Angeles, Curt Powell and Latricia Gray of St. Louis, and Patricia G. of Los Angeles; her sisters and brothers, Barbara J. Smoots (Darwin) of St. Louis, James and Fred Robinson of St. Louis, Henry and Ether Sims of Los Angeles, and Bertha Hamilton of Starkville; and many nieces, nephews and friends.