FARGO – Some people brag about a trophy fish or deer.
Denny Walaker could not stop talking about his two daughters – Shannon and Erin.
He never missed their games or concerts, or the chance to tell them he loved them.
It’s not hard to figure out who had who wrapped around their fingers. Daddy’s girls, apples of his eye, Denny’s two daughters: Shannon and Erin.
“Bigger than life, a huge guy, but a Teddy Bear,” said Erin Hall. “we have always said that, shoulder to cry on if you needed it and shoulders to lift you up if you needed it, and we spent our childhood on the top of his shoulders.”
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Denny loved to travel. Shannon still remembers this from one trip he took.
“One of my favorite stories, when he would fly, we thought it was an amazing thing, I would ask him to bring us back something and he would bring us a bag of peanuts, and it meant so much because he was thinking of us no matter what,” Shannon said.
As the two girls grew up, they watched as their father retired, then led the city through historic floods. They shared their dad with a very thankful city.
He was humble, a teddy bear, and when the 1997 flood happened, one of the amazing things was people would come up to him and he did not know how to handle it.
In the end, and especially this week, the two girls are hearing again about this gentle giant, a man they knew as Dad,
He was who he was and he was comfortable with who he was. “This is me, this is what you get,” and that is why people loved him.
“We are learning how big his life was outside this house and family, and how many lives he touched,” Erin said.
Since the death of Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker, his daughters say they have come to understand the impact of their father’s work for the city.
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Since his death, Erin and Shannon have heard from so many in the city sharing stories of gratitude and appreciation for all Walaker did.
“We knew he touched many people, but we had no idea how many people he touched and respected him he was our biggest fan and Fargo’s biggest fan and he will be missed immensely,” Shannon Walaker said.
