"Larger Than Life": Walter Berry remembered by daughters, family at Leaf and Petal

There was no mistaking when Walter Berry walked into the room.

“When he would get here in the morning, you could tell right when he would walk in the door, because you would hear him,” said Jamie Pursell, owner of Leaf and Petal.

Berry, 68, the master gardener at Leaf and Petal, died on May 31.

“Still, it just almost doesn’t seem real,” Pursell said. “... He provided so much energy and passion and enthusiasm.”

Berry worked at Leaf and Petal for three years and was always willing to devote time to customers and help energize the business, Pursell said.

“He was a cheerleader for the business,” Pursell said. “He would get pumped up and in the morning, especially during our busy season, he’d try to pump up the team and get the team fired up.”

Berry was “larger than life,” friends and family said.

“He was the life of the party,” said daughter Rainer Berry.

Her father, Rainer said, was “over the top” in everything, from interacting with customers at Leaf and Petal to singing “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones to his family just for fun. In the last few years, Rainer said she reminded him about wearing sunscreen. So when she came in Leaf and Petal one day, Berry took her around to every customer to tell them she was “the daughter who bugged him about sunscreen.”

“He was always bragging on us,” Berry said.

Gloria Meier worked with Berry at Leaf and Petal. For the longest time, his co-workers thought his boots were the source of a terrible odor at the business, so they’d often hide them from him. It was one of several pranks they pulled on him over the years.

“He’d come in, ‘Where are my boots?’ and we’d go, ‘We don’t know,’’ Meier said. “We’d tease him. One day he put them back in and said, ‘My boots don’t stink.’ We found a bag of rags that they used to shine pumpkins with, and that’s what was stinking.”

Another time, Berry had unknowingly chained his bike to a rolling cart, so, naturally, his coworkers pushed the cart out of sight. When Berry found out, he laughed and complimented their work, Meier said.

Meier, originally from South Africa, was nicknamed “Globug” by Berry, who would tell customers that she was taken from her home country solely to work for Leaf and Petal, she said.

Rainer said her dad was “funny and embarrassing,” but he was also the dad and granddad who “always showed up.” It would often take Berry 30 minutes to leave somewhere, because he’d end up talking to somebody.

Berry’s other daughter, Camille, took the eight-hour master gardening class with her father a few years ago, and said it was a trying venture for the two of them, as they both deal with attention-deficit disorder.

“He was like the mascot,” Camille said. “... He’s like the fun uncle.”

While she only recalls three or four of the 40 people who took the class, she’s sure that all 40 of them left knowing who Walter Berry was.

“There’s no way to adequately describe him,” she said.

Berry, before working at Leaf and Petal, served in the U.S. Army in Germany and later worked in real estate, Pursell said.

Berry was also an avid baseball fan and spent time going to Birmingham Barons games, Camille said. He also loved fishing, Rainer said.

Pursell said Berry was “old-school.” In addition to working as Leaf and Petal’s master gardener, he was also the crew chief and often supervised younger generations and taught them the value of a good work ethic, Pursell said.

Berry’s personality was a good fit for the store, as he was more suited for interacting with customers to complement Pursell, who describes himself as more task-oriented.

“He loved interacting with people,” Pursell said. “... A lot of time, these customer interactions can take 15, 30 minutes, sometimes longer. For Walter, that’s how he was wired.

“... He’d get them laughing and they’d walk off. They’d shop plants, and they’d come back and have just a huge pile of plants and he’d load them in the car, and he’d come up to the register with a ticket and he’d say something like, ‘She’s locked and loaded,’” Pursell said.

Berry had a “gravelly” voice, Pursell said.

“When I think of Walter, it’s more that voice than even what he looks like or even his smile,” Pursell said. “... That’s what’s sad for us.

“As [an employee] said, the silence is deafening,” Pursell said.

Rainer said she remembers her dad always had African violets, and he’d always loved gardens. Both daughters said Leaf and Petal allowed their father to use his gifts and gave him purpose.

They became, in some ways, like a second family, allowing Berry to have a meaningful “semi-retired” job. When he became a master gardener, it gave him the technical knowledge to essentially “speak plant,” Pursell said, and help those who wanted to keep their own garden.

“He said there was no such thing as a black thumb,” Pursell said.

Leaf and Petal became, in some way, Walter’s life, Pursell said. Camille said she’d never seen her father healthier than when he was working at the store.

“People at Leaf and Petal have been so great,” Berry said. 

While Berry will be remembered for his impact on the customers and staff at Leaf and Petal, his legacy can also be seen by checking out the store on Google Earth. Pursell said when the store near the Summit is pulled up, there’s a picture of Berry, helping customers.

The mold was broken when Berry was born, Meier said. Pursell said he was “one of a kind,” and can’t possibly be replaced. So instead, his Leaf and Petal family will seek to honor him by learning from him and making sure his memory lives on through them.

“Going forward, even though Walter’s gone, we feel the void he’s left,” Pursell said. “... It made us want to find the Walter within us.”