Lo Walker
Lorenz James "Lo" Walker | |
---|---|
15th Mayor of Bossier City, Louisiana, USA | |
Assumed office 2005 | |
Preceded by | George Dement |
Personal details | |
Born | Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, USA | September 26, 1933
Nationality | American |
Political party | Republican Party former Democrat |
Spouse(s) | Adele Marchena Walker (1939-2014)[1] |
Children | Linda Walker Morse William Lance Walker (c. 1971-2011) |
Alma mater | Louisiana Tech University Auburn University |
Occupation | Retired United States Air Force colonel Former business executive |
Lorenz James Walker, also known as Lo Walker (born September 26, 1933),[2] is the first Republican to serve as the mayor of Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana. He is the fifteenth[3] person to hold the position since Ewald Max Hoyer was appointed by Governor Newton Blanchard in 1907, when Bossier City was incorporated.[4]
Background[edit]
A Shreveport native, Walker graduated in 1951 from Fair Park High School. In 1952, he enrolled at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, from which he graduated in 1956 as the "Outstanding Business School Graduate". Through Reserve Officer Training Corps at Louisiana Tech, Walker was commissioned an officer in the United States Air Force. He served for thirty years in the military, including two tours of duty during the Vietnam War at Bien Hoa and Nha Trang air bases. Walker retired in 1986 with the rank of colonel. Walker first considered himself a Bossier City resident as early as 1968, and after mandatory military moves, including a stint in California, he returned to Bossier City permanently in 1980. While in the military, he received a Master of Business Administration degree in 1970 from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.[5]
Walker was previously stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. In his military career, he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses, thirteen Air Medals, a Bronze Star, and the Meritorious Service Medal. He left the military to become Bossier City’s chief administrative officer. Walker told The Shreveport Times that he approaches his job "as I've worked all my life. I learned at an early age to hold a certain work ethic and accountability and I'm very fortunate in that regard to be able to look forward to each and every day."[6]
Political life[edit]
In 1991, Walker made an unsuccessful race as a Democrat in the primary for the District 12 seat on the Bossier Parish Police Jury. The winner in a general election runoff was the late Eddy Shell, a Republican educator at Bossier Parish Community College.[7]
Walker was first elected mayor on April 2, 2005, by a huge margin over the Democrat Anita A. Steadman. He polled 3,793 votes (91.5 percent) in a low-turnout election to her 353 ballots (8.5 percent).[8]Walker succeeded long-time Democratic Mayor George Dement, who in 2001 had polled 5,501 votes (57.2 percent) to 2,158 (22.4) percent for the Independent Billy Ross Robinson and 1,962 votes (20.4) percent for Republican Jerry C. Harris (born 1950).[9] In 1989, Walker, then a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully against Dement, who won the first of his four terms that year as mayor.
At the age of seventy-five in 2009, the self-described "workaholic" Walker,[6] ran unopposed for a second four-year term in the municipal elections held on April 4 in Bossier City, the largest city in Bossier Parish, located east of the Red River from Shreveport. "Of course, I'm pleased. To me, it's an indication that the majority of the population is happy" with the mayor and city council, Walker told The Shreveport Times on learning that he had procured no opposition for reelection.[6]
Walker outlined his principal goals as follows:
- Maintaining public safety, which the hiring of six new police dispatchers
- Completing the Cyber Innovation Center, the $100 million hi-tech park under construction near Bossier Parish Community College
- Expansion of the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway along the Red River.[6]
Walker noted that Bossier City was ranked by Business Week magazine in 2008 as "one of the best places in America to raise a child."[6]
Walker also ran without opposition in 2013.[10]Early in 2015, Walker announced that he will seek a fourth term as mayor in the April 2017 municipal election.[11]
Personal life[edit]
On March 18, 2011, Walker's 39-year-old son, William Lance Walker, was found dead at his residence on Delhi Street in Bossier City.[12]Walker and his wife, Adele Marchena Walker (August 20, 1939 – August 6, 2014), the daughter of Leopoldo and Josephina Marchena and a native of Madrid, Spain, have a surviving daughter, Linda Walker Morse, and two grandsons, Wesley and William Morse.[1][13]
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References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Report: Bossier City mayor's wife dies". The Shreveport Times. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
- ↑ "Click Lorenz Walker, September 1933". voterportal.sos. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ↑ Some sources count Lorenz Walker as the fourteenth mayor because they omit Frank Barnett Blackburn, the interim mayor from 1983 to 1984.
- ↑ Louise Stinson. "Bossier City History". Retrieved January 2, 2015.
- ↑ "Mayor Lorenz "Lo" Walker". Lowalker.com. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "Walker unopposed for mayor of Bossier City", Shreveport Times, February 25, 2009
- ↑ "Louisiana election returns, October 19, 1991". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ↑ "Louisiana election returns, April 2, 2005". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ↑ "Louisiana election returns, April 7, 2001". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ↑ "Lo Walker to seek third term as Bossier City mayor". KTBS-TV. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
- ↑ Lou Gehrig Burnett (January 14, 2015). "Mayor Walker is putting Bossier City on notice". Bossier Press-Tribune. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
- ↑ "Bossier Mayor's Son Found Dead, March 18, 2011". KEEL Radio. Retrieved March 21, 2011.
- ↑ "Adele M. Walker obituary". The Shreveport Times. August 8, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
Preceded by George Dement |
Mayor of Bossier City, Louisiana
Lorenz James "Lo" Walker |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
This article "Lo Walker" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- 1933 births
- Louisiana Democrats
- Louisiana Republicans
- Mayors of Bossier City, Louisiana
- Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana
- Fair Park High School alumni
- Louisiana Tech University alumni
- Auburn University alumni
- United States Air Force officers
- American military personnel of the Vietnam War
- Recipients of the Bronze Star Medal
- Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
- Businesspeople from Louisiana