William Stewart Walker - Revision history

LT: /* Republican congressional campaign, 1964 */

2023-05-30T18:56:23Z

Republican congressional campaign, 1964

BHathorn at 18:58, November 10, 2021

2021-11-10T18:58:02Z

BHathorn at 18:57, November 10, 2021

2021-11-10T18:57:06Z

BHathorn at 18:56, November 10, 2021

2021-11-10T18:56:16Z

BHathorn: /* Republican congressional campaign, 1964 */

2021-11-10T18:54:59Z

Republican congressional campaign, 1964

BHathorn: /* Republican congressional campaign, 1964 */

2021-11-10T18:53:33Z

Republican congressional campaign, 1964

BHathorn: /* Death */

2021-11-10T18:52:56Z

Death

BHathorn: /* Republican congressional campaign, 1964 */

2021-11-10T18:51:55Z

Republican congressional campaign, 1964

BHathorn at 18:47, November 10, 2021

2021-11-10T18:47:49Z

BHathorn: /* Background */

2021-04-19T15:05:52Z

Background

@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
 On returning to Louisiana after his military career ended in compulsory retirement, Walker taught military science for a time at his ''alma mater,'' Northwestern State University, where his brother, George T. Walker, was then the dean.<ref>Statement of Ellen Walker Stephenson of Lancaster, [[Pennsylvania]], a niece of William S. Walker, September 2008.</ref>
-He soon became active in the budding movement to establish a competitive Republican Party in Louisiana, having first been a candidate for the Louisiana State Senate in the [[general election]] held on March 3, 1964, the same contest in which [[Charlton Lyons]] of [[Shreveport]], who also had Winn Parish ties, carried the Republican banner for governor. Walker was defeated, 81-19 percent, by the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[nominee]], former state Representative [[W. L. Rambo]] of Georgetown in Grant Parish.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election returns, Louisiana State Senate, March 3, 1964.</ref> who was allied with the [[Earl Long|Long]] political faction and was even to a member of the Long family.
+He soon became active in the budding movement to establish a competitive Republican Party in Louisiana, having first been a candidate for the Louisiana State Senate in the [[general election]] held on March 3, 1964, the same contest in which [[Charlton Lyons]] of [[Shreveport]], who also had Winn Parish ties, carried the Republican banner for governor. Walker was defeated, 81-19 percent, by the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[nominee]], former state Representative [[W. L. Rambo]] of Georgetown in Grant Parish.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election returns, Louisiana State Senate, March 3, 1964.</ref> who was allied with the [[pro-Long]] political faction and was even to a member of the Long family.
 That summer, Walker was one of twenty delegates from Louisiana to the [[Republican National Convention]] in [[San Francisco]], [[California]] which nominated [[U.S. Senator]] [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]] in the race against [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/walker9.html|title=''The Political Graveyard''|publisher=|accessdate=July 20, 2009}}</ref> Four congressional nominees from Louisiana were invited to meet privately with former President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], who endorsed the GOP slate, including Walker, future [[Governor]] [[David C. Treen]], of [[suburb]]an [[New Orleans]], publisher [[Robert Angers]] of [[Lafayette]], and businessman Floyd O. Crawford (1907–1995) of [[Baton Rouge]], who opposed incumbent Representative and former gubernatorial candidate [[James H. Morrison|James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison, Sr.]], of Hammond, Louisiana.<ref>"Barry Cops GOP Banner for Conservatives," ''[[Shreveport Journal]],'' [[Shreveport]], Louisiana, July 16, 1964, p. 1.</ref>

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 Stewart A. Walker<br>
 William T. "Will" Walker<br>
-Parents:<br>
+'''Parents''':<br>
 William Thomas and Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Stovall Walker
 |party=[[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate for [[United States House of Representatives]], 8th congressional district, 1964

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 | death_date=February 6, 1999 (aged 84)
 | death_place=[[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]]<br>Rapides Parish, Louisiana<br>
-Resting place:<br>
+'''Resting place''':<br>
-Transport Cemetery in Dodson in Winn Parish, Louisiana
+Transport Cemetery in Dodson in Winn Parish
 |residence=Winnfield, Winn Parish, Louisiana
 |spouse=Mary Elizabeth Abel Walker (married, 1940-1999, his death)<br>

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 |branch=[[United States Army]]
 |battles=[[World War II]]
-|rank=Major<br>
+|rank=[[Lieutenant Colonel]]<br>
 Rescued 380 fellow soldiers from behind enemy lines in [[Belgium]]}}

@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 He soon became active in the budding movement to establish a competitive Republican Party in Louisiana, having first been a candidate for the Louisiana State Senate in the [[general election]] held on March 3, 1964, the same contest in which [[Charlton Lyons]] of [[Shreveport]], who also had Winn Parish ties, carried the Republican banner for governor. Walker was defeated, 81-19 percent, by the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[nominee]], former state Representative [[W. L. Rambo]] of Georgetown in Grant Parish.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election returns, Louisiana State Senate, March 3, 1964.</ref> who was allied with the [[Earl Long|Long]] political faction and was even to a member of the Long family.
-That summer, Walker was one of twenty delegates from Louisiana to the [[Republican National Convention]] in [[San Francisco]], [[California]] which nominated [[U.S. Senator]] [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]] in the race against [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/walker9.html|title=''The Political Graveyard''|publisher=|accessdate=July 20, 2009}}</ref> Four  congressional nominees from Louisiana were invited to meet privately with former President [[Dwight Eisenhower]], who endorsed the GOP slate, including Walker, future [[Governor]]  [[David C. Treen]], of [[suburb]]an [[New Orleans]], publisher [[Robert Angers]] of [[Lafayette]], and businessman Floyd O. Crawford (1907–1995) of [[Baton Rouge]], who opposed incumbent Representative and former gubernatorial candidate [[James H. Morrison|James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison, Sr.]], of Hammond, Louisiana.<ref>"Barry Cops GOP Banner for Conservatives," ''[[Shreveport Journal]]'', [[Shreveport]], Louisiana, July 16, 1964, p. 1.</ref>
+That summer, Walker was one of twenty delegates from Louisiana to the [[Republican National Convention]] in [[San Francisco]], [[California]] which nominated [[U.S. Senator]] [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]] in the race against [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/walker9.html|title=''The Political Graveyard''|publisher=|accessdate=July 20, 2009}}</ref> Four congressional nominees from Louisiana were invited to meet privately with former President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], who endorsed the GOP slate, including Walker, future [[Governor]] [[David C. Treen]], of [[suburb]]an [[New Orleans]], publisher [[Robert Angers]] of [[Lafayette]], and businessman Floyd O. Crawford (1907–1995) of [[Baton Rouge]], who opposed incumbent Representative and former gubernatorial candidate [[James H. Morrison|James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison, Sr.]], of Hammond, Louisiana.<ref>"Barry Cops GOP Banner for Conservatives," ''[[Shreveport Journal]],'' [[Shreveport]], Louisiana, July 16, 1964, p. 1.</ref>
-Walker's opponent was [[Speedy Long]], an [[attorney]] and a former state senator from Jena in LaSalle Parish. Considered the most [[conservative]] of the Longs, Speedy had unseated his third cousin, [[Gillis Long]] of Alexandria, in the Democratic primary in the summer of 1964. Walker's showing, a half percent better than Treen received in his race against the Democrat [[Hale Boggs]], may have been a reflection of continuing Long factional divisions, which had appeared in 1963 in the gubernatorial primary. In that campaign, U.S. Representative Gillis Long]] was endorsed by U.S. Senator [[Russell Long]], the son of [[Huey Long|Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]], and the successful opponent, [[John J. McKeithen]], carried the backing of [[Blanche Long]], Earl Long's politically influential widow. Goldwater was an easy winner in Louisiana and polled large majorities in the northern half of the state prior to passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], which brought forth the registration of large numbers of [[African American]]s. Goldwater provided a boost to Walker but insufficient help to defeat a Long candidate.<ref>[[Bill Dodd]], ''Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics'', [[Baton Rouge]]: Claitor's Publishing, 1991.</ref> Speedy Long prevailed in the House contest, 33,250 votes (54.5 percent) to Walker's 27,735 (45.5 percent). Walker carried only Rapides Parish but polled at least 40 percent in Sabine, Natchitoches,  Grant, LaSalle, and Winn parishes.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, U.S. Congress, November 3, 1964.</ref>
+Walker's opponent was [[Speedy Long]], an [[attorney]] and a former state senator from Jena in LaSalle Parish. Considered the most [[conservative]] of the Longs, Speedy had unseated his third cousin, [[Gillis Long]] of Alexandria, in the Democratic primary in the summer of 1964. Walker's showing, a half percent better than Treen received in his race against the Democrat [[Hale Boggs]], may have been a reflection of continuing Long factional divisions, which had appeared in 1963 in the gubernatorial primary. In that campaign, U.S. Representative Gillis Long was endorsed by U.S. Senator [[Russell Long]], the son of [[Huey Long|Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]], and the successful opponent, [[John J. McKeithen]], carried the backing of [[Blanche Long]], Earl Long's politically influential widow. Goldwater was an easy winner in Louisiana and polled large majorities in the northern half of the state prior to passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], which brought forth the registration of large numbers of [[African American]]s. Goldwater provided a boost to Walker but insufficient help to defeat a Long candidate.<ref>[[Bill Dodd]], ''Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics'', [[Baton Rouge]]: Claitor's Publishing, 1991.</ref> Speedy Long prevailed in the House contest, 33,250 votes (54.5 percent) to Walker's 27,735 (45.5 percent). Walker carried only Rapides Parish but polled at least 40 percent in Sabine, Natchitoches,  Grant, LaSalle, and Winn parishes.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, U.S. Congress, November 3, 1964.</ref>
 Walker never again sought office and was not visibly involved thereafter in politics.

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 After more than three decades of retirement, Walker died at the age of eighty-four at St. Frances Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria, named for the famous nun, [[Mother Cabrini]]. His services were held on February 9, 1999, at Edmond's Funeral Home Chapel in Winnfield.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bayou.com/~suelynn/99obits/feb99.html|title=Obituaries from the ''Monroe News Star''|publisher=bayou.com|accessdate=July 18, 2009}}</ref> Nine months after her husband's passing, Elizabeth Walker died in Winn Parish Medical Center. Her services were held in the First [[United Methodist]] Church in Winnfield.
-Pastor Barry Hoekstra (1956-2014), later of First United Methodist in Alexandria and St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Shreveport,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=barry-hoekstra&pid=172602862&fhid=10228|title=Barry Hoekstra|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=September 28, 2014}}</ref> officiated at the services for both William and Elizabeth Walker. There are three Walkere children, Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Walker (born August 30, 1948), then of [[Boston]],  [[Massachusetts]], William T. "Will" Walker (born on March 12, 1950, and adopted in Linz, Austria) and wife Shirley, then of [[Tallahassee]], [[Florida]], and Stewart Abel Walker (born September 22, 1951), then of [[New York City]], and two grandchildren, the offspring of Will Walker. William and Mary Elizabeth Walker, who died in the same year, are interred at the family plot at Transport Cemetery in Dodson in Winn Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/winn/obits/current/sep1999.txt|title=Mary Elizabeth Walker obituary|publisher=files.usgwarchives.net|accessdate=July 19, 2009}}</ref>
+Pastor Barry Hoekstra (1956-2014), later of First United Methodist in Alexandria and St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Shreveport,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=barry-hoekstra&pid=172602862&fhid=10228|title=Barry Hoekstra|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=September 28, 2014}}</ref> officiated at the services for both William and Elizabeth Walker. There are three Walker children, Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Walker (born August 30, 1948), then of [[Boston]],  [[Massachusetts]], William T. "Will" Walker (born on March 12, 1950, and adopted in Linz, Austria) and wife Shirley, then of [[Tallahassee]], [[Florida]], and Stewart Abel Walker (born September 22, 1951), then of [[New York City]], and two grandchildren, the offspring of Will Walker. William and Mary Elizabeth Walker, who died in the same year, are interred at the family plot at Transport Cemetery in Dodson in Winn Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/winn/obits/current/sep1999.txt|title=Mary Elizabeth Walker obituary|publisher=files.usgwarchives.net|accessdate=July 19, 2009}}</ref>
 ==A previous William S. Walker==

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 William Thomas and Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Stovall Walker
 |party=[[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate for [[United States House of Representatives]], 8th congressional district, 1964
-|alma_mater=[[Northwestern State University]]}}
+|alma_mater=[[Northwestern State University]]
-'''William Stewart Walker,''' usually known as '''Stewart Walker''' (October 6, 1914 &ndash; February 6, 1999), was a lieutenant colonel froom Winnfield [[Louisiana]], who during [[World War II]] as a [[United States Army]] major, rescued 380 of his fellow soldiers from behind enemy lines in [[Belgium]] in December 1944. In 1964, he ran unsuccessfully as a [[Republican Party|Republican]] for Louisiana's since disbanded 8th congressional district seat in the [[United States House of Representatives]].
+'''William Stewart Walker,''' usually known as '''Stewart Walker''' (October 6, 1914 &ndash; February 6, 1999), was a lieutenant colonel from Winnfield, [[Louisiana]], who during [[World War II]] as a [[United States Army]] major, rescued 380 of his fellow soldiers from behind enemy lines in [[Belgium]] in December 1944. In 1964, he ran unsuccessfully as a [[Republican Party|Republican]] for Louisiana's since disbanded 8th congressional district seat in the [[United States House of Representatives]].
 ==Background==
@@ Line 45: / Line 49: @@
 On December 23, 1944, pilots in unarmed C-47s attempted unsuccessfully to fly in supplies. On December 24, three German officers appeared in half-tracks bearing a white flag. They told Hogan that the Allied position was hopeless. The men saluted when Hogan replied that he had been ordered to fight to the finish. Lieutenant Harold L. W. Randall of White Cloud, [[Kansas]], led an exploratory patrol. On [[Christmas Day]], the force was ordered to try to make a run for it.  The men blackened their faces and removed their helmets to confuse enemy patrols. They damaged their armored vehicles to make them useless to the enemy. Hogan's men hiked over terrain so rugged that the Nazis had not thought it necessary to man the areas. Finally, on December 26, all but twenty of the four hundred men returned in triumph.<ref name=dixon/>
-Walker's subsequent activities were thereafter reported by ''The New Orleans Times Picayune'' under the headline "'Task Force Hogan' Back from New Armored Raid Deep into Germany".<ref>"'Task Force Hogan' Back from New Armored Raid Deep into Germany", ''New Orleans Times-Picayune'', January 9, 1945.</ref>
+Walker's subsequent activities were thereafter reported by ''The New Orleans Times Picayune'' under the headline "'Task Force Hogan' Back from New Armored Raid Deep into Germany".<ref>"'Task Force Hogan' Back from New Armored Raid Deep into Germany", ''New Orleans Times-Picayune,'' January 9, 1945.</ref>
 There is no evidence that Walker received any medals or commendation for his work in the relief of the soldiers in Belgium.
@@ Line 51: / Line 55: @@
 ==Republican congressional campaign, 1964==
-On returning to Louisiana after his military career ended in compulsory retirement, Walker taught military science for a time at his ''alma mater'', Northwestern State University, where his brother, George T. Walker, was then the dean.<ref>Statement of Ellen Walker Stephenson of Lancaster,  [[Pennsylvania]], a niece of William S. Walker, September 2008.</ref>
+On returning to Louisiana after his military career ended in compulsory retirement, Walker taught military science for a time at his ''alma mater,'' Northwestern State University, where his brother, George T. Walker, was then the dean.<ref>Statement of Ellen Walker Stephenson of Lancaster, [[Pennsylvania]], a niece of William S. Walker, September 2008.</ref>
 He soon became active in the budding movement to establish a competitive Republican Party in Louisiana, having first been a candidate for the Louisiana State Senate in the [[general election]] held on March 3, 1964, the same contest in which [[Charlton Lyons]] of [[Shreveport]], who also had Winn Parish ties, carried the Republican banner for governor. Walker was defeated, 81-19 percent, by the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[nominee]], former state Representative [[W. L. Rambo]] of Georgetown in Grant Parish.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election returns, Louisiana State Senate, March 3, 1964.</ref> who was allied with the [[Earl Long|Long]] political faction and was even to a member of the Long family.

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 ==Background==
-Walker was born in the Wyatt Community of southern Jackson Parish just north of the Winn Parish line in north Louisiana, to William Thomas Walker and the former Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Stovall (1877–1951), Walker was descended from a large and influential family. William Thomas and Lizzie Walker married in 1896 and had ten other children: Charles Elmer Walker (1897–1941), Pyburn Elton Walker (1899–1987), Edgar Lee "Ed" Walker (1901–1972), Vester Walker (1902–1906), Gladys Oneta Walker (1904–1963), William Elmo Walker (1905–1956), L. Z. Walker (1907–1993), Grace Mae Walker (1909–1991), Edwin Olen Walker (1911–1978), and [[George T. Walker]] (1913-2011).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=george-thomas-walker&pid=152392279|title=George T. Walker|publisher=''[[Monroe News Star''|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref> At the time of his mother's death in 1951, the obituary lists Walker as a lieutenant colonel in [[Vienna]], [[Austria]]. "Ed" Walker was a  football coach at the [[University of Mississippi]] at Oxford who led his team to an early Orange Bowl competition, and Olen Walker had been a college football player. George T. Walker, the only sibling to survive William S. Walker, was a dean at [[Northwestern State University]] in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]] and the retired president of the University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.transportcemetery.com/Walker_MES.html|title=Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Stovall, Transport Cemetery records, Dodson, Louisiana|publisher=Transportcemetery|accessdate=July 19, 2009}}</ref>
+Walker was born in the Wyatt Community of southern Jackson Parish just north of the Winn Parish line in north Louisiana, to William Thomas Walker and the former Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Stovall (1877–1951), Walker was descended from a large and influential family. William Thomas and Lizzie Walker married in 1896 and had ten other children: Charles Elmer Walker (1897–1941), Pyburn Elton Walker (1899–1987), Edgar Lee "Ed" Walker (1901–1972), Vester Walker (1902–1906), Gladys Oneta Walker (1904–1963), William Elmo Walker (1905–1956), L. Z. Walker (1907–1993), Grace Mae Walker (1909–1991), Edwin Olen Walker (1911–1978), and [[George T. Walker]] (1913-2011).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thenewsstar/obituary.aspx?n=george-thomas-walker&pid=152392279|title=George T. Walker|publisher=''[[Monroe News Star]]''|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref> At the time of his mother's death in 1951, the obituary lists Walker as a lieutenant colonel in [[Vienna]], [[Austria]]. "Ed" Walker was a  football coach at the [[University of Mississippi]] at Oxford who led his team to an early Orange Bowl competition, and Olen Walker had been a college football player. George T. Walker, the only sibling to survive William S. Walker, was a dean at [[Northwestern State University]] in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]] and the retired president of the University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.transportcemetery.com/Walker_MES.html|title=Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Stovall, Transport Cemetery records, Dodson, Louisiana|publisher=Transportcemetery|accessdate=July 19, 2009}}</ref>
 Walker was a cousin of [[Morgan W. Walker, Sr.]], an [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]] businessman who was president and founder of  Continental Trailways.<ref>Obituary of [[Morgan W. Walker,  Sr.]], ''Winn Parish Enterprise News'', Winnfield, Louisiana, February 23, 1983.</ref>