Linda F. Carter, Managing Director HR Operations Support for FedEx Express, shares a moment with Sonia Walker, the widow of Dr. Walter L. Walker, former president of The LeMoyne-Owen College. (Photos by Mila Shaw)

The celebration of the life of Dr. Walter L. Walker, the former president of LeMoyne-Owen College, was held Nov. 17, 2008 at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church before an audience of loving family, friends, and admirers.

Dr. Walker, 73, died Nov. 11 following emergency brain surgery and a 31-year fight against multiple sclerosis (MS).  He made his illness public, advocating for the physically challenged.  His personal and public triumphs were heralded in a eulogy by MBCC Pastor Frank A. Thomas who compared the Chicago native with Elijah the Prophet, “I want to celebrate that he has gone from a wheelchair to a chariot,” Thomas said.

Dr. Walker, married for 45 years to Sonia Louden Walker, moved his wife and three young sons to Memphis in 1974 and began a 12-year career as president of LeMoyne-Owen College.

By the time he arrived in Memphis, he had already earned a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago, served as an officer and weather forecaster in the U.S. Air Force, earned a Master’s degree at Bryn Mawr School of Social Work in Pennsylvania and a PhD from the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.  He was vice-president of planning at the University of Chicago before coming to LOC and, afterwards, served as vice-president at the University of Tennessee from 1986-1991.

Sonia Walker (second from right) accepts well-wishes. Pictured: (l-r) Joyce Clark, Pastor Janae Pitts, John Cade II and Cynthia Dickerson.

Sonia Walker, a native of Columbus, Ohio, said the couple met in the Catskills Mountains in New York and were married in 1964.  In her reflections, she stated that he waited patiently for two hours for her to appear at their wedding while she “hid in department stores and boutiques, trying to avoid the path to our destiny.”

A loving and devoted wife, she said, “He had the ability to face adversity and go through or around it, or be okay in spite of it.”

She said his favorite expression in handling situations was ‘I don’t mean no harm.’

He was not a demanding or high maintenance person, she said. Thoughtful and supportive, he always allowed her to be herself.   “He was always amused by my antics,” she recalled warmly.

Associate pastor of First Congregation Church since being ordained this past June, Rev. Sonia Walker said that her husband was actually diagnosed with MS three years after coming to Memphis.  And research on his health history revealed that the disease had first manifested itself when he was 18.  

Speakers for the memorial service included Rev. Cheryl Cornish of First Congo; Dr. Alvin O. Jackson of Park Avenue Christian Church in New York; Robert C. Lipscomb of the LeMoyne Owen Board of Trustees; and businessman Fred C. Davis, a close friend.

The service also included a photo montage and written and oral reflections by his three sons – Noland, Aaron and Marcus.  Sonia said what they said and wrote was moving to her because it showed how much they loved their father.  

“They had to grow into that,” she said, speaking in her trademark deliberate and thoughtful manner. “We knew how to take care of our children.  We gave them the best we had.  We didn’t plan them; they just came.”

The concurrent member of two churches — MBCC and First Congo, Dr. Walter Walker was admired for his community service.  In addition to the National MS Society Board, he was a past chairman of United Way, an 18-year board member of WKNO, a Heritage Life member of the NAACP, and a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.  He was the first African American on the board of First Tennessee Bank, a founding board member of Church Health Center and a board member of Memphis Rotary Club.

Preceded in death by his father, brother, and mother, Dr. Walker leaves his wife, three sons, three daughters-in-law, Cheryl, Kelle and Kristin, and four grandchildren as well as many other relatives, friends and admirers.

The three sons of Dr. Walter L. Walker: (l-r) Noland, Marcus and Aaron.