OraLee Helen Walker

OraLee Helen Walker, 86, of Kerrville, Texas, passed away at her residence on May 4, 2026. The youngest of five children, OraLee was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 14, 1940, to Lloyd Depew and Doris Purtee Depew. She grew up in Sharonville, Ohio. After graduating from Sharonville High School, OraLee moved to California and joined the workforce. It was in California that she met her husband, James Bruce Walker. They married in 1966 and had one daughter, Jami Lee, in 1967. At that time, Jim and OraLee moved to east Tennessee and started what became a very successful upholstery and furniture restoration business. In 1990, they retired and moved back to Palm Springs, California, area where they lived until Jim passed away in 1994.

About a year after her husband’s death, OraLee had begun to adjust to life as a widow when she met a man on the golf course and found herself being asked for a date. It was a meeting that was purely happenstance but one that would forever change her life. The man was Trini Lopez, an international entertainer, musician, and actor, and a long-time resident of Palm Springs, California. OraLee and Trini began dating as friends. After a while, she became his personal assistant and then his business manager, handling his many bookings, travel arrangements, and concert requirements all over the world. Over the course of the years, they fell in love and became inseparable. That first date turned into a 25-year loving relationship that lasted until Trini tragically passed away in August of 2020 due to complications from COVID-19.

After Trini’s death, OraLee moved to Kerrville, Texas, to be near her daughter, Jami and her son-in-law. Chris. She adopted a cat and tried to get the lay of the land, although Kerrville was much different from Palm Springs, California. She always joked that she owned neither jeans nor cowboy boots. She did later develop an interest in genealogy and discovered that she had Patriot ancestors, and in March of 2026, OraLee became an official member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

OraLee became ill in early 2026, and her daughter, Jami, became her primary caregiver until OraLee was placed in hospice care in her own home. The excellent team at Peterson Hospice were a godsend, and the family would like express their love and gratitude to everyone who was a part of OraLee’s care, especially Nurses Sarah and Amy, Chaplain Jamie, Kamryn, the CNAs who came three times a week, volunteers Kim and Judy, and Wylie who always brought fresh flowers every Tuesday.

OraLee was preceded in death by her husband James B. Walker, parents Lloyd and Doris Depew, sisters Bonnie Howard and Josephine Midkiff, and brother Billy Depew.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Jami and Chris Ferris, honorary daughter Courtney Foster, sister Anita Joann Jarvis, nephew Bryant Howard, as well as many other nieces and nephews. She also leaves behind her Lopez family, who loved “Tia Oralee,” including nephews Robert and Joseph Diaz, Salvador Martinez, and niece Angela Marino as well as the numerous other nieces, nephews, and extended Lopez family members who she loved as if they were her own.

At OraLee’s request, there will be no memorial or service. She asked that all of those who miss her take a moment to find a Trini Lopez song and sing along in your loudest voice as it was Trini’s music that brought her the greatest joy in her last months.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Peterson Hospice in Kerrville, Texas, at https://petersonhealthfoundation-bloom.kindful.com/.
Services with integrity, pride, and honor are under the direction of Kerrville Funeral Home.