Yvonne “Peewee” Walls

On August 27, 2023, Yvonne “Peewee” Walls made her  way into heaven after suffering for many years from the effects of multiple sclerosis.

On May 9, 1939, Peewee was born in the small town of Keegan, Maine.  Peewee grew up in a tightknit family and community.  She had just 12 classmates in her graduating class with boys on one side and girls on theother side of the “campus” and both sides closely watched by the ever-present nuns.   Peewee enjoyed an idyllic life of ice cream at Rocky’s lunch counter, trading in glass bottles for penny candy, sock hops in the 1950s, and watching for fast cars and “fly boys” from Loring Air Force Base with her girlfriends.  

She met her “fly boy” and married her “Army” soldier from Loring Air Force Base, Clifford H. Walls, Jr. in 1960.  They enjoyed a marriage with all of the ups and downs and joys of a friendship lasting over 63 years.  After they married, Cliff was transferred to Alabama which was a world away from her small town on the border of Maine and Canada.  Soon after, they relocated to Williamsburg when Cliff was transferred to Fort Eustis.  While Peewee grew up in a snow-covered small town, she considered Williamsburg Virginia her heart and home. In Williamsburg, she learned to drive, fostered her love for McDonalds, and as a young married couple Cliff and Peewee would enjoy a night out at the Fish House or Burger King in Denbigh on payday!

When Peewee was first married, she couldn’t even boil water but quickly learned and made a home for her family as it grew.  Cliff and Peewee have four children, Elizabeth “Lisa” Walls, Clifford “Butch” Walls, III(Robin), Tina-Marie Walls, and Phillip Lee Walls(Christi). Each of her children possessed some of her special traits, her daughter Lisa has her love of food and sense of humor, Butch inherited her love of family, Tina-Marie has Peewee’s love of learning and Reese’scups, and Phillip has her sense of curiosity and laughter.  

Peewee went from not being able to cook to making dinner every night for her family.  Her children loved her Shepard’s pie, chicken and dumplings, and her favorite, ice cream cake.  Her children often woke up to the smell of bacon with breakfast and dinner was on the table each and every night when the “streetlight”came on.  After school and on the weekends, she and her best friend of 53 years, Linda Stewart, would move their lawn chairs to the center of the road and they would watch the kids ride bikes, make jokes about their husbands, and share stories and laughter as the fireflies lit the summer skies.  

Those fireflies lit the way to heaven and at the heavenly gates Saint Peter welcomed Peewee at 9:47 p.m.  Saint Peter grinned widely in the moonlight when Peewee was lifted from her wheelchair and began tapping her feet to her husband’s 1962 jazz favorite Tuff by Ace Cannon.  As she stood and danced, she was greeted by her family who pre-deceased her:  her mom and dad, Yvonne and Donat Cyr, as well as all of her brothers and sisters, Margaret (Wilfrid) Jalbert, Valeda (Robert) Jiudice, Philip “Pete” (Marcella) Cyr, twins Aurele (Irena Lee) Cyr and Lionel (Viola) Cyr, Roland Cyr, Lewellyn Cyr, Joseph Cyr, and Marguerite Cyr. Peewee was seen dancing with her granddaughter Tiffany Amber Walls, who she adored, and missed.  Finally, as she saw her Godmother, Irena Lee Cyr who was a nurse, she was healed of all of the pain that she endured during her last days oof life.  As her pain lifted away, heaven was full of music and laugher (and maybe even a few swear words) as Peewee made her way around laughing and hugging her family that were anxiously waiting for her.  

Peewee’s brash humor, sometimes a sense of embarrassment for her children, was with her to the end in the hospital.  For instance, in her youth, she packed her husband’s lunch for work every day.  One day, Cliff came home complaining that she had not put a fork in his lunch box.  Well,  in Peewee fashion, his lunch box the next day was full of every fork in the house but not a morsel of food.  Their love survived the trial and tribulations of marriage, but even on her last day on earth when she was unable to drink, eat, or speak; Peewee gave her wry smile when Cliff bent down and gave her a kiss on her lips as he left her hospital room.  Love can be fleeting in moments when you have 63 years of marriage but humor, understanding, and commitment sustained them until the end.

In addition to her children, Peewee leaves her grandchildren, Candice Turner (Jonathan), Anthony Flores, Clifford H. Walls, IV; Remi Walls, and Keegan Aurele Walls.  Peewee also adored her great-grandchildren and the love and laughter the 4 of them brought to her. Peewee is also survived by her sisters-in–law Therese Cyr and Nancy Cyr, as well as her special nephew and “Maine son” Lee “Billy” Cyr. Peewee has too many of her “Maine” family to mention but she cherished all of them.

Peewee left this earth as she entered it, she entered with the love from her parents and brothers and sisters,and left earth with the love of her husband, children, and grandchildren.  Her children and grandchildren knew that they were special, loved, and heard.  As Peewee would want, love those close to you, let laughter fill your heart, and when all else fails grab a piece of chocolate or a Dairy Queen cone and just enjoy the moment because tomorrow is never promisedand we will never regret what we did but rather those things we never had the heart to try.  

A service will be held on Friday, September 1, 2023 at 11:00 AM at Bucktrout Funeral Home.