Margaret Dalton Walding

 July 21, 1947 – June 9, 2025

Margaret Jane Dalton Walding, formerly of Lake Charles (LA), Waco (TX), Cincinnati (OH) and Naples (FL), passed into heavenly rest on June 9, 2025, due to complications from her long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. In her latter days she was a resident in Eden at Crestview in Crestview, FL.

Margaret was born July 21, 1947, the first of three children born to Gordon Melvin Dalton (d.1966) and Loraine Andrews Dalton (d.2024). She grew up in Lake Charles, LA and became an accomplished pianist, winning many awards in local and regional piano competitions. Margaret graduated from Lake Charles High School in 1965 and enrolled in the third class at Houston Baptist College. There she

double-majored in English Literature and Early Childhood Education, with a minor in piano, earning her degree in only three years. There she also met her future husband during the first week of classes her freshman year. On January 27, 1968, she married James Douglas Walding, formerly of Willis, TX, with whom she had one child, Cara Lynn Lacson (b. May 8, 1973), of Naples, FL.

A person of strong Christian faith, Margaret studied the Bible and strove to apply its teachings to her

life. Through her life, she was involved in church work and charitable activities, including her roles as Sunday School teacher, piano accompanist for worship services, youth choir leader, accompanist for a touring church youth choir, mission volunteer, and countless other worship roles within the churches she attended over the years.

Her vocational life was focused on the education of elementary children. Her love for children was the foundation for a distinguished teaching career that started in Houston, TX, then progressed to Eagle Mountain-Saginaw in Fort Worth, TX, St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Waco, TX, and finally to Seven Hills School (Lotspeich) in Cincinnati, OH. In 2001, she took three years out of the classroom while she wrote and published a 4-volume curriculum series for the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education. Her work entitled “Creating Classrooms and Homes of Virtue: A Resource for Elementary Teachers and Families” soon became a classic in the field. It led Margaret into conducting a series of workshops with school faculties across the USA. She continued her teaching and speaking career until health problems forced her retirement in 2005.

In her later years, Margaret and her husband moved to “sunny Naples, Florida” (as she would often say) to be near their daughter and family; they had the joy of living in the same neighborhood as their daughter and son-in-law, plus their twin girls whom she dearly loved and called one of her life’s greatest blessings.

Margaret is survived by her husband of 57 years, James Douglas Walding; their daughter, Cara Lynn Lacson, and son-in-law, Rodney Alan Lacson; twin granddaughters, Priscilla Abigail Lacson and Sasha Esther Lacson; granddaughter Camryn Grace Ross; sisters Kathryn Dalton Taylor and Martha Dalton Faull; uncle Robert Andrews; nieces and nephews in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Colorado; and the many lives that she dearly loved and had the blessing to teach over the years.

 On Friday, June 13, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. CST the family will gather in the Peel Funeral Home Chapel in Bonifay, FL. At 9:30 the family will have a small graveside service and celebration of Margaret’s life at the City of Bonifay Cemetery in Bonifay, FL.

In accord with Margaret’s passions, the family asks that in lieu of flowers, please contribute in Margaret’s honor to the Parkinson’s Foundation (parkinson.org) or Shriners Hospitals for Children (donate.lovetotherescue.org).