To view memorial service, please click HERE

Mrs. Mary Beth Cooper Walden, 74, died Sunday, June 7th, 2020, at her home in Oxford, MS.

A memorial service will be held Sunday, June 28, 2020, at 3:00 pm at Lowndes Funeral Home, Columbus, MS, with Rev. Gene Bramlett officiating. The service will be for immediate family only and closed to the public. However, the service may be viewed LIVE online at www.lowndesfuneralhome.net . After the service, beginning at 5 pm and ending at 6 pm, the family will host a drive-by visitation at their home in Columbus, MS (305 Hospital Drive). You need not park. The family will be on the front lawn to wave to those paying respects. One of Mary Beth's final wishes was to collect backpacks and school supplies for underserved elementary children during her service. If you would like to donate school supplies of any kind during the drive-by visitation, one of Mary Beth's grandchildren will take the necessary safety precautions to retrieve your donation at your car window.

Born in Columbus, MS to the late Alverne Nichols and Frank Cooper, Mary Beth was a member of Covenant United Methodist Church in Columbus, MS, where she maintained a dual residence. She is the widow of the late, Mr. Donald Edward Walden.

In 1951, Mary Beth moved to Macon, MS, with her family, where she spent a number of her grade school years. Her family finally settled in Oxford, MS, in 1961, and she graduated from Oxford High School in 1964. Mary Beth received a bachelor's degree in Business Education and a master's degree in Library Science from the University of Mississippi. While pursuing her master's, she worked full time, mothered two small children, and supported her husband as he finished pharmacy school. Mary Beth began her teaching career at Fifth Street School in West Point, MS, in the 1970s, but she spent the bulk of her professional life in Columbus, MS as a member of the Heritage Academy faculty. Mary Beth wore many hats at Heritage, but her favorite was successively playing senior sponsor to each graduating class. She was intensely proud of her students and cherished the lifelong friends found among her teaching colleagues and school parents.

Mary Beth was a successful business owner, partnering with her husband to build a thriving pharmacy that serviced her community for decades. She was passionate about accounting instruction, literature, learning, her library, and her "grands." Her laugh was infectious, and her dear sister, Elsie, could get Mary Beth tickled like no other. In her free time, Mary Beth enjoyed playing the piano, sewing, cooking, and reading. She loved Ole Miss baseball, a good margarita, and movie nights with her sweet friend.

Mrs. Walden is survived by two daughters, Erika Walden and her partner, Lawton Gafford, of Water Valley, MS, and Shanda Walden Sloan and her husband, Bill, of Fayetteville, AR; one sister, Elsie Cooper Dixon of Oxford, MS; her friend and stepmother, Mary Kaye Cooper; two grandchildren, Walden Sloan and Gable Sloan; two nieces, Mary Martha Henson and Laura Ann Walker; one nephew, Cooper Dixon, three grandnieces, Sadie Walker, Amory Walker, and Collyns Dixon; and two grandnephews, Ethan Walker and Campbell Dixon. Countless dear friends and cherished loved ones in Oxford, MS, and Columbus, MS mourn her loss.

In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Walden and her family ask that friends consider memorial contributions to The Palmer Home for Children, palmerhome.org, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, BCRF.org, or filling a backpack with school supplies and donating them to your local elementary school.

To view memorial service, please click HERE