CHAMPAIGN — Alberta M. Walker lost her hearing, then her sight.

But the 96-year-old Champaign woman, who drowned in a fishing accident at the Fairmount Quarry on Sunday afternoon, didn't let that get her down or keep her from doing the things that she loved, relatives said Monday.

"My mom was the most positive person I knew," Norma Seybert of Edgemont, Ark., said of her mother, whom relatives say was the last living resident of Walker's Island that's now part of Horseshoe Lake State Park in southern Illinois.

"Even after she went blind, she never complained," Seybert said. "She always made the best of situations and remained as independent as she could. That helped her live a very full life."

An autopsy on Monday confirmed that Mrs. Walker drowned, Vermilion County Coroner Peggy Johnson said later that afternoon. She said an inquest may be held later.

Johnson said Mrs. Walker was fishing from a bank when she lost her balance and fell into the water.

Roy Walker Jr. of Champaign said he was with his mother at the time.

"I thought it was too hot, but she begged me to take her fishing," he said. So Saturday, they drove to JR's Fishing and Camping Club south of Fairmount, where he keeps a camper, to try to catch some bluegill.

On Sunday, they found a shady spot and caught a few fish, Roy Walker Jr. said. Then they decided to leave because it got too hot.

"She stood up and dropped her cane and went over backwards," he said, adding his mother had been standing on a bank about 3 feet above the water.

Roy Walker Jr. said his mother swam toward the bank, where he was holding the cane out to her. When she started to struggle, he said he jumped in the 12- to 15-feet-deep water even though he can't swim.

He said he grabbed his mother and eventually pulled her to the bank. By then, it was too late, he said.

Born in 1915, Mrs. Walker was placed in her grandmother's care after her mother fell ill. With no home of their own, the two moved around different places to live with relatives.

They ended up at the home of relatives who lived on Walker's Island, a 500-acre island surrounded by Horseshoe Lake in Madison County. In 1931, Alberta married Roy Walker, who farmed on the island with his brother. The couple reared three children, including Betty Braundneier of Edwardsville.

"My mom was an excellent seamstress and cook," Seybert recalled, adding her mother sewed all of her and her sister's clothing, many out of feed bags that their father brought home.

"She spent her whole life helping others," Seybert continued. "We always had someone living with us. If someone was down on their luck, she'd take them in and give them a place to stay. Until then, Mom never had a home of her own. She was always moving around from one place to another. I think that made her a very caring person."

After her husband's death in 1966, Mrs. Walker lived on the island for a few more years before selling the land in 1971. She first went to live with Braundneier in Edwardsville. In 1985, she moved in with her son, then an instructor at the University of Illinois' Police Training Institute and now a professor emeritus.

In addition to her children, Mrs. Walker had nine grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, Seybert said. "Family was very important to her," she said, adding she never forgot to send cards for birthdays and Christmas. "She loved to sit and visit with them."

Roy Walker Jr. said his mother also enjoyed fishing, even after she went blind. She had lost most of her hearing earlier.

"You've got to realize where she came from," said Roy Walker Jr., who wrote a book about Walker's Island, now the state park's campground. "She used to crawl around on the lake banks and stick her hand down those holes, pull crawdads out and then shell them to go fishing. When you take her to a lake bank, she's home."

"She was independent," Seybert said, adding her mother still got around with a cane or walker or with her brother's help. "She never lost that independent spirit."