June 23, 2021 Charlotte, North Carolina - Edgar Harris Walker, Jr., "Eddie" passed away on June 23, 2021 at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, SC, surrounded by his loving family – including his brother, two sons, his five grandchildren, and his former wife and lifelong friend. He was preceded in death by his father Edgar Harris Walker, Sr., and his mother Emma Cornelia "Connie" Walker. He is survived by his brother James Floyd Walker and his wife Sharon of Charlotte, NC; sons Edgar Harris "Trey" Walker, III and wife Ali of Columbia, SC and John Hanes Walker and wife Ashley of Charlotte, NC; and grandchildren Edgar Harris "Harrison" Walker, IV and Haleigh Madison Walker of Columbia, SC; Emma Caroline Walker, Laura Payton Walker and Raleigh Hanes Walker of Charlotte, NC and former wife Donna Hanes Walker Pressley of Charlotte, NC.
A native of Charlotte, NC, Eddie was the last of six generations of Walkers to grow up on a once wide and rural expanse of family property that bordered modern day Providence Road to Monroe Road, Wendover Road to McAlpine Creek in Mecklenburg County, NC. It was granted to his descendants by the King of England under The Colonial Naturalization Act of 1740, which resulted in a large number of Presbyterian Scots-Irish from Ulster families settling in Mecklenburg, after fleeing the British Isles to avoid religious persecution from the crown and the Anglican Church of England.
One of the founding families of Sardis Presbyterian Church, generations of Walkers lay in rest in the church's cemetery. Eddie will join his parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great-great grandparents, and great-great-great grandparents in internment.
Eddie attended East Mecklenburg High School where he met Donna Hanes. An outstanding athlete, he was awarded an athletic scholarship to play basketball for Erskine College in Due West, SC, where he received multiple accolades for play against conference and Atlantic Coast Conference competition.
In his professional career, Eddie found his calling in sales, specifically in the marketing and sales of machine tools for manufacturing industries located in the Carolinas. He founded and developed Walker Machine Tools of Rock Hill, SC into a regional sales powerhouse, successfully meeting the explosive international manufacturing growth in the Carolinas, and he held various leadership roles in the South Carolina Society for Manufacturing Engineers.
Eddie was a Master Mason and member of Corinthian Lodge 416 A.F.M. and a Noble member of the Temple Hejaz Shriners of Greenville, SC, and active member of the York County Republican Party, he was also a founding member of the Brigadier General Micah Jenkins Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #1569 in Rock Hill, SC, and served as the Vice Commander of the South Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
A Celebration of Life will be held at Sardis Presbyterian Church at 11:30 am on August 7, 2021 in Charlotte, NC.