Antoinette Holzborn Walters, matriarch, mother of twelve children, grandmother of nineteen and great-grandmother of sixteen, died in Hendersonville, N.C., on April 8, 2020. She was 101.
Antoinette was born on March 13, 1919, in Denver, Colorado, to John Little Holzborn and Alma Bettinger Holzborn.
The family returned to their former residence in Cincinnati a couple of years later. In the 1930s, Antoinette’s father bought a home on the Indian River in Eau Gallie, Florida, where Antoinette spent much of her youth with her mother and grandmother, while her father traveled on business between Florida and Ohio. When Antoinette (“Toni”) was 19, she met her future husband, Linwood Josey “Scrap” Walters, at a dance in nearby Indialantic Beach. They were married at the family home, known as Sunny Point, in 1940.
The family arrived in Hendersonville with seven children in the mid-1950s and welcomed five more over the next few years. Their rambling two-story home on 4th Avenue soon became known to friends, neighborhood children and a few strangers as a place where the doors were always open and the food was always out, even if a few days old. Round-the-clock entertainment was free: flag football games in the front yard, water fights with hoses, rides for young children on the back of the family’s enormous St. Bernard named King, and endless games of kick-the-can late into moonlit summer nights.
Antoinette’s greatest joys were the spontaneous get-togethers throughout the years and family gatherings at Thanksgiving and other holidays. Whether the family was drinking trash can punch by a wood fire at her home in the snowy hills of New Hampshire where she and her husband had moved in the late 1970s; picking blueberries on a foggy summer morning on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where the family often spent summers; or sharing a sunset in the mountains around Hendersonville, Antoinette’s great appetite for life and its myriad delights drew loved ones and friends together over thousands of miles and many decades.
Antoinette sported slim blue jeans into her late 80s, was an accomplished classical pianist who played Beethoven sonatas and read without glasses well into her 90s, and had a sense of humor that outlasted a century. She was Catholic in practice but a mystic at heart who said that most of her problems were solved during “little side-conversations with God.”
Late into her years, Antoinette continued to tend her flower gardens and especially loved deep blue delphiniums and rose-colored peonies. She was also a stalwart defender of trees. When one of her children suggested she cut the row of birch at the bottom of the pasture in New Hampshire to get a better view of the White Mountains, she said, “Why would I do that? The trees have just as much right to the view as I do.”
Throughout her life, she memorized a litany of prayers and poetry about nature. Among her favorite lines were:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
In addition to her beloved grand- and great-grandchildren, Antoinette is survived by three daughters: Marylin Walters Denison (Arden, N.C.); Maryann Walters Whalen (Halifax, Nova Scotia); and MaryJane Walters Hunter (Fairview, N.C.); and seven sons: John Linwood Walters, Christopher Michael Walters and Andrew Bernard Walters (Hendersonville); Anthony Anderson Walters (Columbus, N.C.); Mark Jerome Walters (St. Petersburg, Fla.); and Patrick Albert Walters and Joseph Gregory Walters (Charlotte, N.C.). Antoinette’s husband “Scrap” passed away in 1979, her daughter Mary Antoinette Charlton (“Toi”) in 1989, and her son George Gerard Walters in 2013.
Source Citation: Groce Funeral Home
Antoinette was born on March 13, 1919, in Denver, Colorado, to John Little Holzborn and Alma Bettinger Holzborn.
The family returned to their former residence in Cincinnati a couple of years later. In the 1930s, Antoinette’s father bought a home on the Indian River in Eau Gallie, Florida, where Antoinette spent much of her youth with her mother and grandmother, while her father traveled on business between Florida and Ohio. When Antoinette (“Toni”) was 19, she met her future husband, Linwood Josey “Scrap” Walters, at a dance in nearby Indialantic Beach. They were married at the family home, known as Sunny Point, in 1940.
The family arrived in Hendersonville with seven children in the mid-1950s and welcomed five more over the next few years. Their rambling two-story home on 4th Avenue soon became known to friends, neighborhood children and a few strangers as a place where the doors were always open and the food was always out, even if a few days old. Round-the-clock entertainment was free: flag football games in the front yard, water fights with hoses, rides for young children on the back of the family’s enormous St. Bernard named King, and endless games of kick-the-can late into moonlit summer nights.
Antoinette’s greatest joys were the spontaneous get-togethers throughout the years and family gatherings at Thanksgiving and other holidays. Whether the family was drinking trash can punch by a wood fire at her home in the snowy hills of New Hampshire where she and her husband had moved in the late 1970s; picking blueberries on a foggy summer morning on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where the family often spent summers; or sharing a sunset in the mountains around Hendersonville, Antoinette’s great appetite for life and its myriad delights drew loved ones and friends together over thousands of miles and many decades.
Antoinette sported slim blue jeans into her late 80s, was an accomplished classical pianist who played Beethoven sonatas and read without glasses well into her 90s, and had a sense of humor that outlasted a century. She was Catholic in practice but a mystic at heart who said that most of her problems were solved during “little side-conversations with God.”
Late into her years, Antoinette continued to tend her flower gardens and especially loved deep blue delphiniums and rose-colored peonies. She was also a stalwart defender of trees. When one of her children suggested she cut the row of birch at the bottom of the pasture in New Hampshire to get a better view of the White Mountains, she said, “Why would I do that? The trees have just as much right to the view as I do.”
Throughout her life, she memorized a litany of prayers and poetry about nature. Among her favorite lines were:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
In addition to her beloved grand- and great-grandchildren, Antoinette is survived by three daughters: Marylin Walters Denison (Arden, N.C.); Maryann Walters Whalen (Halifax, Nova Scotia); and MaryJane Walters Hunter (Fairview, N.C.); and seven sons: John Linwood Walters, Christopher Michael Walters and Andrew Bernard Walters (Hendersonville); Anthony Anderson Walters (Columbus, N.C.); Mark Jerome Walters (St. Petersburg, Fla.); and Patrick Albert Walters and Joseph Gregory Walters (Charlotte, N.C.). Antoinette’s husband “Scrap” passed away in 1979, her daughter Mary Antoinette Charlton (“Toi”) in 1989, and her son George Gerard Walters in 2013.
Source Citation: Groce Funeral Home
Antoinette Holzborn Walters, matriarch, mother of twelve children, grandmother of nineteen and great-grandmother of sixteen, died in Hendersonville, N.C., on April 8, 2020. She was 101.
Antoinette was born on March 13, 1919, in Denver, Colorado, to John Little Holzborn and Alma Bettinger Holzborn.
The family returned to their former residence in Cincinnati a couple of years later. In the 1930s, Antoinette’s father bought a home on the Indian River in Eau Gallie, Florida, where Antoinette spent much of her youth with her mother and grandmother, while her father traveled on business between Florida and Ohio. When Antoinette (“Toni”) was 19, she met her future husband, Linwood Josey “Scrap” Walters, at a dance in nearby Indialantic Beach. They were married at the family home, known as Sunny Point, in 1940.
The family arrived in Hendersonville with seven children in the mid-1950s and welcomed five more over the next few years. Their rambling two-story home on 4th Avenue soon became known to friends, neighborhood children and a few strangers as a place where the doors were always open and the food was always out, even if a few days old. Round-the-clock entertainment was free: flag football games in the front yard, water fights with hoses, rides for young children on the back of the family’s enormous St. Bernard named King, and endless games of kick-the-can late into moonlit summer nights.
Antoinette’s greatest joys were the spontaneous get-togethers throughout the years and family gatherings at Thanksgiving and other holidays. Whether the family was drinking trash can punch by a wood fire at her home in the snowy hills of New Hampshire where she and her husband had moved in the late 1970s; picking blueberries on a foggy summer morning on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where the family often spent summers; or sharing a sunset in the mountains around Hendersonville, Antoinette’s great appetite for life and its myriad delights drew loved ones and friends together over thousands of miles and many decades.
Antoinette sported slim blue jeans into her late 80s, was an accomplished classical pianist who played Beethoven sonatas and read without glasses well into her 90s, and had a sense of humor that outlasted a century. She was Catholic in practice but a mystic at heart who said that most of her problems were solved during “little side-conversations with God.”
Late into her years, Antoinette continued to tend her flower gardens and especially loved deep blue delphiniums and rose-colored peonies. She was also a stalwart defender of trees. When one of her children suggested she cut the row of birch at the bottom of the pasture in New Hampshire to get a better view of the White Mountains, she said, “Why would I do that? The trees have just as much right to the view as I do.”
Throughout her life, she memorized a litany of prayers and poetry about nature. Among her favorite lines were:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
In addition to her beloved grand- and great-grandchildren, Antoinette is survived by three daughters: Marylin Walters Denison (Arden, N.C.); Maryann Walters Whalen (Halifax, Nova Scotia); and MaryJane Walters Hunter (Fairview, N.C.); and seven sons: John Linwood Walters, Christopher Michael Walters and Andrew Bernard Walters (Hendersonville); Anthony Anderson Walters (Columbus, N.C.); Mark Jerome Walters (St. Petersburg, Fla.); and Patrick Albert Walters and Joseph Gregory Walters (Charlotte, N.C.). Antoinette’s husband “Scrap” passed away in 1979, her daughter Mary Antoinette Charlton (“Toi”) in 1989, and her son George Gerard Walters in 2013.
Source Citation: Groce Funeral Home
Antoinette was born on March 13, 1919, in Denver, Colorado, to John Little Holzborn and Alma Bettinger Holzborn.
The family returned to their former residence in Cincinnati a couple of years later. In the 1930s, Antoinette’s father bought a home on the Indian River in Eau Gallie, Florida, where Antoinette spent much of her youth with her mother and grandmother, while her father traveled on business between Florida and Ohio. When Antoinette (“Toni”) was 19, she met her future husband, Linwood Josey “Scrap” Walters, at a dance in nearby Indialantic Beach. They were married at the family home, known as Sunny Point, in 1940.
The family arrived in Hendersonville with seven children in the mid-1950s and welcomed five more over the next few years. Their rambling two-story home on 4th Avenue soon became known to friends, neighborhood children and a few strangers as a place where the doors were always open and the food was always out, even if a few days old. Round-the-clock entertainment was free: flag football games in the front yard, water fights with hoses, rides for young children on the back of the family’s enormous St. Bernard named King, and endless games of kick-the-can late into moonlit summer nights.
Antoinette’s greatest joys were the spontaneous get-togethers throughout the years and family gatherings at Thanksgiving and other holidays. Whether the family was drinking trash can punch by a wood fire at her home in the snowy hills of New Hampshire where she and her husband had moved in the late 1970s; picking blueberries on a foggy summer morning on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where the family often spent summers; or sharing a sunset in the mountains around Hendersonville, Antoinette’s great appetite for life and its myriad delights drew loved ones and friends together over thousands of miles and many decades.
Antoinette sported slim blue jeans into her late 80s, was an accomplished classical pianist who played Beethoven sonatas and read without glasses well into her 90s, and had a sense of humor that outlasted a century. She was Catholic in practice but a mystic at heart who said that most of her problems were solved during “little side-conversations with God.”
Late into her years, Antoinette continued to tend her flower gardens and especially loved deep blue delphiniums and rose-colored peonies. She was also a stalwart defender of trees. When one of her children suggested she cut the row of birch at the bottom of the pasture in New Hampshire to get a better view of the White Mountains, she said, “Why would I do that? The trees have just as much right to the view as I do.”
Throughout her life, she memorized a litany of prayers and poetry about nature. Among her favorite lines were:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
In addition to her beloved grand- and great-grandchildren, Antoinette is survived by three daughters: Marylin Walters Denison (Arden, N.C.); Maryann Walters Whalen (Halifax, Nova Scotia); and MaryJane Walters Hunter (Fairview, N.C.); and seven sons: John Linwood Walters, Christopher Michael Walters and Andrew Bernard Walters (Hendersonville); Anthony Anderson Walters (Columbus, N.C.); Mark Jerome Walters (St. Petersburg, Fla.); and Patrick Albert Walters and Joseph Gregory Walters (Charlotte, N.C.). Antoinette’s husband “Scrap” passed away in 1979, her daughter Mary Antoinette Charlton (“Toi”) in 1989, and her son George Gerard Walters in 2013.
Source Citation: Groce Funeral Home
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