After leaving school, she traveled three years in Europe, receiving part of her instruction there,[2] including learning several modern languages.

[4] On June 20, 1861, at Washington County, Mississippi, she married Charles Frederick Turnbull (1840–1870),[6] a cotton planter of Mississippi,[3][1] They had three children:[6] Left a widow with three young children, she utilized her liberal education and her literary talent to make a career in journalism in St.

[4] In 1903, with Hannah D. Pittman, she published Americans of gentle birth and their ancestors : a genealogical encyclopedia (St. Louis, Mo., Buxton and Skinner).

[8] When her failing health forced her to give up the work at the Globe-Democrat, she was succeeded by her daughter, Marie Turnbull Bauduy.

She went to Macon, Georgia to spend the winter with her brother, George P. Kershaw, but her condition did not improve and she returned to St. Louis on May 3, 1909, accompanied by her daughter, Marie Bauduy.

Rosa Kershaw Walker died at her home in St. Louis, May 7, 1909, after more than a year of illness, due to nervous breakdown.