Nicole Joanne Walker
Nicole “Nickey” Joanne Kebort Walker, age 69, of Downers Grove, IL, passed away on March 11, 2025, from complications of heart failure. Her body will be cremated and laid to rest at the Holy Hope Cemetery in Tucson, AZ.
Nicole was born in Buffalo, NY on December 6, 1955. Her birthday fell on Saint Nicholas Day. She loved putting out wooden shoes for Saint Nicholas to fill with fruit and treats. She graduated from Clarence High School in New York and continued on to receive a bachelor’s degree in education at Northern Arizona University. She furthered her education at Northern Arizona University receiving a Masters of Educational Technology.
Nicole married Jack Wayne Walker on June 20, 1981, they were together for 15 years. They had four daughters. Nicole enjoyed watching Chicago Bulls games with her family. She loved warm weather and often said during the Chicago winters, “I hate this place!”
Nicole worked as a physics teacher at Central Plainfield High School for over 20 years. She would often state Newton’s First Law of Motion at any opportunity. She also enjoyed researching family history. She volunteered at the FamilySearch Center for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Nicole is survived by her sister Katrina Kebort, her four daughters Jennifer Rose Barder, Jessica Lynne Clark, Valerie Kay Payne and Cassandra Leanne Mantyla, and 16 grandchildren. Nicole is preceded in death by her parents Victor William Kebort and Maryanne Moureen Hurley.
In lieu of flowers, please help keep the Kebort legacy alive. Donate to https://www.crawfordheritage.org/donate-now and type “Kebort Family Cemetery” in the special notes field.
I’m shocked and saddened to hear of Nickey’s passing. She was a hands-on science teacher who challenged her students to grow. She was also a colleague and friend of mine. After she retireShe selflessly used her genealogy talents and helped me find my birth parents after she retired. I’m forever grateful for her friendship and her generosity. 🩷
Thank you Dawn! We have science items that we’d like to donate to PHS. Do you know how we can do that? You can email me at clmantyla@gmail.com
We worked with Nickey at the Family Search Center helping people with their genealogy searches. Nickey was very involved in helping people find their ancestors. She just had a natural gift of searching and finding the answers for people. It was amazing how much information she could find. We have lost a very dedicated volunteer at our Family Search Center. May her family know the numerous people she became friends with because not only helping others find ancestors, she also became good friends with these people.
I worked with Nickey for four years at the Naperville FamilySearch Center. Her dedication to family history was remarkable. She was relentless in her pursuit of answers and rarely, if ever, gave up. She would ask questions about finding a record that couldn’t be seen at our Center. Sometimes we’d search for days. A few times we found records at other Centers out of state and actually asked to borrow their films (shipping costs were not an issue). She was a great teacher and I hope she was able to instill that same pursuit of answers to her physics students. She will be missed but her legacy will live on.
I will miss my dear friend Nickey. We would often chat late into the night about genealogy and life. So often she spoke of her love and appreciation for her father, daughters, and grandkids. She talked of her days teaching and her mission trips. She was keenly intelligent and our conversations never ran out of fuel before our need for sleep overtook us. I am blessed to have known her.