Patricia Walker Bijou

Patricia Walker Bijou October 4, 1935 ~ August 28, 2018 (age 82) Patricia Martha Walker was born in Tampa, Florida on October 4, 1935, to Helen Crawford Walker and Ernest Moore Walker. In 1940, the family moved to New York, where her father worked for many years at NBC. Most of her early years were spent in Bellport, Long Island; with idyllic summer vacations in Point O' Woods. Patricia began a distinguished radio and TV career at the age of four, at an Atlanta radio station. "At six," reported the Brooklyn Heights Press on Feb. 25, 1954, "she was doing two-part speaking with Bob Emory on his 'Rainbow House' and at eight she became a regular member of the panel on Jack Barry's 'Juvenile Jury' "Next, she served as a regular panelist on Ed Herlihy's 'Junior Reporter' She was also an interviewer on NBC's 'Easter Parade'." In 1951, during a summer spent with family in the South, she hosted and deejayed "Patsy's Anything Goes"; a daily radio program in Toccoa, Georgia. In 1952 Patricia graduated from the Hewlett School for Girls in East Islip, Long Island, and then was awarded a full scholarship to The RCA Institutes to study communications engineering - a rarity for a young woman in the 1950's. At the age of 18, Patricia began working for Jinx Falkenburg and Tex McCrary on their two daily radio and daily TV shows on NBC. She loved her job as a pre-interviewer and writer for the shows, where she met many notable figures of the time, some of whom became long-term friends. She married Theodore Tuck Caldwell Bijou, and became active in New York Society, particularly through her involvement with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. The Bijous traveled extensively in Europe, and ultimately moved to Praia Da Luz, Portugal. There Patricia worked as a writer, copywriter, and editor, for several companies, organizations and publications, especially the Algarve News. In the mid 1980's the Bijous separated, and Patricia returned to the United States, and settled in Pound Ridge, NY. She continued to write, copywrite, and develop PR projects, then managed and edited The Gardener's Gazette, in Norwalk Connecticut After retiring in 1996, she enjoyed travel in Europe and Costa Rica, and in recent years especially with her good friends Sue, June, Madeleine and Evelyne; aka "The Golden Girls". Her other compelling interest was the history of her extended family, and she became an authority on certain aspects of the American Civil War. Patricia was STEM before there was STEM. Never forgetting her "techie" roots, she embraced the Macintosh, Kindle, and Facebook; and enthusiastically kept up with friends and family both in the States and abroad. Some of her happiest moments came when she was able to reach out and reconnect with friends from her childhood on Long Island as well as from her youthful time in the "Mad Men" era of New York City. Patricia Walker Bijou was preceded in death by her parents, Ernest Moore Walker and Helen Crawford Walker; her younger brother Ernest Moore Walker Jr.; and her husband, Theodore T.C. Bijou. She is survived by her sister, Helen Walker Parker, of Pound Ridge, New York (Foxhall); her nieces Patricia Parker Mueller (Mark), of Vail, Colorado; Mary Parker Davidson (Ronald) of EagleVail, Colorado; and Susan Walker of New York City; her nephew, Ernest Moore Walker III, of Warwick, NY (Dawn Sanchez); great nieces Morgan Raye Mueller and Gina Marie Walker; and great nephew Ernest Moore Walker III.