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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder | name=Lorenz James "Lo" Walker |nationality=American | office=15th Mayor of Bossier City, Louisiana, United Stat..."
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Lorenz James "Lo" Walker
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=15th [[Mayor]] of [[Bossier City]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| party=[[Democratic Party)|Democrat]]-turned-[[Republican Party|Republican]]
| term_start=2005
| term_end=
| preceded=George Dement]
| birth_date=September 26, 1933
| birth_place=[[Shreveport]], Louisiana
| alma_mater=Fair Park High School (Shreveport)
[[Louisiana Tech University]]
[[Auburn University]]
| occupation=Retired [[United States Air Force]] [[colonel]]<br>Former [[business]] executive
| spouse= Adele Marchena Walker (married c. 1962-2014, her death)<ref name=adelewalker>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20140806/NEWS01/140806013/Report-Bossier-City-mayor-s-wife-dies?odyssey=mod|title=Report: Bossier City mayor's wife dies|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=August 6, 2014}}</ref>
| children=Linda Walker Morse<br>
William Lance Walker (c. 1971-2011)}}
'''Lorenz James Walker''', known as '''Lo Walker''' (born September 26, 1933), is the first [[Republican Party|Republican]] to serve as the [[mayor]] of [[Bossier City]] in northwestern [[Louisiana]]. First elected in 2005, he is the fifteenth<ref>Some sources count Lorenz Walker as the fourteenth mayor because they omit [[Frank Blackburn|Frank Barnett Blackburn]], the [[interim]] mayor from 1983 to 1984.</ref> person to hold the position since [[Ewald Max Hoyer]] was appointed by [[Governor]] Newton Blanchard in 1907, when Bossier City was a [[village]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bossiercity.org/Bossier-City-History/|title=Bossier City History|author=Louise Stinson|accessdate=January 2, 2015}}</ref>
==Background==
A [[Shreveport]] native, Walker graduated in 1951 from the since disbanded Fair Park High School. In 1952, he enrolled at [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/impact_study/testimonials.shtml|title=Louisiana Tech University Testimonials|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref> 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 the Bien Hoa and Nha Trang air bases. Walker retired in 1986 with the rank of [[colonel]]. He first considered himself a Bossier City resident as early as 1968, After mandatory military moves, including a stint in [[California]], he returned permanently to Bossier City in 1980. While in the military, he received a [[Master of Business Administration]] degree in 1970 from [[Auburn University]] in Auburn, [[Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lowalker.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162&Itemid=293|title=Mayor Lorenz "Lo" Walker|publisher=Lowalker.com|accessdate=May 11, 2009}}</ref>
Walker was previously stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. In his military career, he earned two [[Distinguished Flying Cross]]es, thirteen Air Medals, a [[Bronze Star]], and the Meritorious Service Medal. He left the military to become Bossier City’s chief administrative officer under Mayor [[George Dement]], his [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] predecessor. Walker told ''The Shreveporr 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."<ref name=walker/>
==Political life==
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 runoff contest, called the [[general election]] in Louisiana, was the late [[Eddy Shell]], a Republican educator at Bossier Parish Community College.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 19, 1991.</ref>
Walker was elected mayor on April 2, 2005, by a huge margin in a low-turnout contest with the Democrat Anita A. Steadman, 3,793 votes (91.5 percent) to her 353 ballots (8.5 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, April 2, 2005.</ref> George Elyott Dement (1922-2014) won his fourth and final term as mayor in 2001 with 57.2 percent of the ballots cast.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, 2001.</ref> In 1989, when Dement was first elected mayor, Walker, then a Democrat, ran against him and finished with just under 17 percent of the ballots cast, barely above the total for the Republican candidate, David H. Broussard (1947-1998)<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, April 1, 1989.</ref>
At the age of seventy-five in 2009, the self-described "workaholic" Walker,<ref name=walker>"Walker unopposed for mayor of Bossier City," ''The Shreveport Times,'' February 25, 2009.</ref> ran unopposed for a second term in the municipal elections held on April 4 in Bossier City, the largest city in Bossier Parish though the parish seat is to the north in Benton. Bossier City is 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 in 2009<ref name=walker/>
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 scenic Arthur Ray Teague Parkway along the Red River.<ref name=walker/>
In 2011, Mayor Walker worked successfully to keep open the Louisiana Boardwalk shops and restaurants complex in downtown Bossier City. The company faced [[foreclosure]] from its bank after six years of operation. Walker was able to locate new management to take over the operation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://k945.com/louisiana-boardwalk-foreclosed-on/|title=Louisiana Boardwalk Foreclosed on?|date=February 16, 2011|publisher=k945.com|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref>
==Mayoral matters===
Walker worked in 2010 and 2011 with local and state officials to obtain two compressed natural gas plants, which offer public access to [[alternative fuel]]s.<ref name=cng>{{cite web|url=http://www.cngnow.com/news/post.aspx?id=22|title=Bossier City's second CNG station opens|publisher=''The Bossier Press-Tribune''|date=August 25, 2011|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref>
In 2012, Walker and other local and state officials participated with the entertainer Jimmy Buffett in a ground-breaking ceremony for the third Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, a $197 million resort [[casino]] in Bossier City. The name comes from "Margaritaville", a 1977 Buffet song. The singer performed early in his career in Bossier City. The project, includes a hotel and restaurant. Company officials said that the firm will provide more than 1,200 jobs and $12 million in local tax revenues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.margaritaville.com/news.html?n_id=3106&y=2012&m=3|title=Construction on Bossier City Margaritaville Casino Has Begun|publisher=margaritaville.com|date=March 1, 2012|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref><ref>The two other Margaritaville casinos are in [[Las Vegas]], [[Nevada]], and Biloxi, [[Mississippi]].</ref>
In 2012, Mayor Walker confirmed that taxpayers in his city faced the loss of $6.7 million in damages to the U. L. Coleman Company, a [[real estate]] firm in Shreveport, in the settlement of a long-running legal dispute in state and federal court. Moreover, the city expended $10.4 million in infrastructure improvements, the cost of a walkway over the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, and a $1 million park between CenturyLink Center, the municipal arena, and the proposed "Walker Place" development project. Demographer and public policy analyst Elliott Stonecipher placed the total loss to the city, including legal fees, at nearly $25 million. Stonecipher said the losses are "100 percent the fault of the government those taxpayers have put in office and strongly supported."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forward-now.com/2012/12/12/bossier-mob-takes-a-hit-from-u-l-coleman/|title="Bossier Mob" Takes a Hit from U. L. Coleman|date=December 12, 2012|author=[[Elliott Stonecipher]]|publisher=''Forward Now!''|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://npaper-wehaa.com/forum-news/2013/05/01/?g=print#?article=1896272|title=Walker Place, Part 2|publisher=''The Forum Newsweekly''|date=May 1, 2013|author=Elliott Stonecipher|accessdate=March 2, 2015}}</ref>
In December 2014, the city council once again rejected pay increases for municipal employees as Mayor Walker proposed. Columnist Jeffrey Dennis Sadow attributed the lack of funding for the raises to the recurring high costs associated with the operation of the CenturyLink Center, which opened in 2000. CenturyLink cost $1,500 per resident, or more than $55 million, nearly $20 million more than had been anticipated by city officials. Through 2013, the city spent $5 million more to operate the center. Minor league sports teams, unable to survive, abandoned the CenturyLink. In 2013 alone, the city transferred $750,000 into CenturyLink and still ran a deficit of $200,000. Those costs could have funded the pay raises. Sadow proposed that the city sell CenturyLink at a loss so that it not become a permanent white elephant on municipal expenditures.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thehayride.com/2014/12/sadow-bossier-city-fiddles-while-its-arena-burns-tax-dollars/|title=Sadow: Bossier City Fiddles While Its Arena Burns Tax Dollars|author=Jeffrey Dennis Sadow|date=December 22, 2014|publisher=''The Hayride''|accessdate=February 28, 2014}}</ref>
Despite such cost concerns, 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."<ref name=walker/> Bossier City also ranks on the ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine Top 10 list for job opportunities.<ref name=cng/>
An advocate of highway expansion, Walker has been the president of the Interstate 69 Mid-Continent Highway Coalition. Some 1,600 miles is expected to be added to I-69 over a period of years as funds become available to connect [[Laredo]] and [[Brownsville]], [[Texas]], with [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]]. An approved corridor supported by Walker linked Magnolia, [[Arkansas]], to Haughton in south Bossier Parish before connecting to Tenaha in east, Texas, and then heading south. Walker convinced lawmakers in [[Washington, D.C.]], to provide designated funding for the highway project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bizmagsb.com/bossier-city-mayor-helping-craft-future-of-i-69/|title=Bossier City mayor helping craft future of I-69|date=October 14, 2013|publisher=''Biz Magazine''|accessdate=March 2, 2015}}</ref>
Walker also ran without opposition for mayor for his third term in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ktbs.com/story/22384542/lo-walker-to-seek-third-term-as-bossier-city-mayor|title=Lo Walker to seek third term as Bossier City mayor|publisher=[[KTBS-TV]]|accessdate=February 11, 2015}}</ref> Early in 2015, he announced that he would seek a fourth term as mayor in the April 2017 municipal election.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bossierpress.com/opinion-mayor-walker-puts-bossier-city-on-notice/|title=Mayor Walker is putting Bossier City on notice|publisher=''The Bossier Press-Tribune''|author=Lou Gehrig Burnett|date=January 14, 2015|accessdate=February 3, 2015}}</ref>
Each year in the second week of November, Walker and the mayor of Shreveport, currently Adrian Parkins, host the "Shreveport/Bossier City Mayors' Prayer Breadfast", patterned on the national event in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mykisscountry937.com/shreveportbossier-mayors-prayer-breakfast-planned-for-this-thursday/|title=Shreveport/Bossier Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast Planned For This Thursday|author=Gary McCoy|date=November 11, 2015|publisher=KISS Country Radio|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref>
==Personal life==
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://710keel.com/bossier-mayors-son-found-dead/|title=Bossier Mayor's Son Found Dead, March 18, 2011|publisher=KEEL Radio|accessdate=March 21, 2011}}</ref> 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.<ref name=adelewalker/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=adele-m-walker&pid=172015162&fhid=6692|title=Adele M. Walker obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=August 8, 2014|accessdate=August 12, 2014}}</ref>
Walker met Adele in Fort Walton Beach, [[Florida]]. The couple married at Ford Park in Shreveport and were together for fifty-two years. He took care of her in the final years of her illness. Since Adele's death, Walker married a widowed college sweetheart from his days at Louisiana Tech University, Connie Westergaard Cash, an artist who is three years his junior. The courtship of the older couple was carried statewide as a human interest story by the [[Associated Press]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/life/people/2015/02/14/bossier-city-mayor-lo-walker-fallen-love/23403909/|title=Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker has fallen in love|date=February 13, 2015|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Margaret Martin|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref> and ''[[The Washington Times]].''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/23/bossier-city-mayor-lo-walker-has-fallen-in-love/?page=all|title=Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker has fallen in love|date=February 23, 2015|publisher=''[[The Washington Times]]''|accessdate=March 1, 2015}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Lo}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:United States Air Force]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Former Democrats]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
| name=Lorenz James "Lo" Walker
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
| office=15th [[Mayor]] of [[Bossier City]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| party=[[Democratic Party)|Democrat]]-turned-[[Republican Party|Republican]]
| term_start=2005
| term_end=
| preceded=George Dement]
| birth_date=September 26, 1933
| birth_place=[[Shreveport]], Louisiana
| alma_mater=Fair Park High School (Shreveport)
[[Louisiana Tech University]]
[[Auburn University]]
| occupation=Retired [[United States Air Force]] [[colonel]]<br>Former [[business]] executive
| spouse= Adele Marchena Walker (married c. 1962-2014, her death)<ref name=adelewalker>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20140806/NEWS01/140806013/Report-Bossier-City-mayor-s-wife-dies?odyssey=mod|title=Report: Bossier City mayor's wife dies|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=August 6, 2014}}</ref>
| children=Linda Walker Morse<br>
William Lance Walker (c. 1971-2011)}}
'''Lorenz James Walker''', known as '''Lo Walker''' (born September 26, 1933), is the first [[Republican Party|Republican]] to serve as the [[mayor]] of [[Bossier City]] in northwestern [[Louisiana]]. First elected in 2005, he is the fifteenth<ref>Some sources count Lorenz Walker as the fourteenth mayor because they omit [[Frank Blackburn|Frank Barnett Blackburn]], the [[interim]] mayor from 1983 to 1984.</ref> person to hold the position since [[Ewald Max Hoyer]] was appointed by [[Governor]] Newton Blanchard in 1907, when Bossier City was a [[village]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bossiercity.org/Bossier-City-History/|title=Bossier City History|author=Louise Stinson|accessdate=January 2, 2015}}</ref>
==Background==
A [[Shreveport]] native, Walker graduated in 1951 from the since disbanded Fair Park High School. In 1952, he enrolled at [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/impact_study/testimonials.shtml|title=Louisiana Tech University Testimonials|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref> 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 the Bien Hoa and Nha Trang air bases. Walker retired in 1986 with the rank of [[colonel]]. He first considered himself a Bossier City resident as early as 1968, After mandatory military moves, including a stint in [[California]], he returned permanently to Bossier City in 1980. While in the military, he received a [[Master of Business Administration]] degree in 1970 from [[Auburn University]] in Auburn, [[Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lowalker.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162&Itemid=293|title=Mayor Lorenz "Lo" Walker|publisher=Lowalker.com|accessdate=May 11, 2009}}</ref>
Walker was previously stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. In his military career, he earned two [[Distinguished Flying Cross]]es, thirteen Air Medals, a [[Bronze Star]], and the Meritorious Service Medal. He left the military to become Bossier City’s chief administrative officer under Mayor [[George Dement]], his [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] predecessor. Walker told ''The Shreveporr 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."<ref name=walker/>
==Political life==
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 runoff contest, called the [[general election]] in Louisiana, was the late [[Eddy Shell]], a Republican educator at Bossier Parish Community College.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 19, 1991.</ref>
Walker was elected mayor on April 2, 2005, by a huge margin in a low-turnout contest with the Democrat Anita A. Steadman, 3,793 votes (91.5 percent) to her 353 ballots (8.5 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, April 2, 2005.</ref> George Elyott Dement (1922-2014) won his fourth and final term as mayor in 2001 with 57.2 percent of the ballots cast.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, 2001.</ref> In 1989, when Dement was first elected mayor, Walker, then a Democrat, ran against him and finished with just under 17 percent of the ballots cast, barely above the total for the Republican candidate, David H. Broussard (1947-1998)<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, April 1, 1989.</ref>
At the age of seventy-five in 2009, the self-described "workaholic" Walker,<ref name=walker>"Walker unopposed for mayor of Bossier City," ''The Shreveport Times,'' February 25, 2009.</ref> ran unopposed for a second term in the municipal elections held on April 4 in Bossier City, the largest city in Bossier Parish though the parish seat is to the north in Benton. Bossier City is 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 in 2009<ref name=walker/>
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 scenic Arthur Ray Teague Parkway along the Red River.<ref name=walker/>
In 2011, Mayor Walker worked successfully to keep open the Louisiana Boardwalk shops and restaurants complex in downtown Bossier City. The company faced [[foreclosure]] from its bank after six years of operation. Walker was able to locate new management to take over the operation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://k945.com/louisiana-boardwalk-foreclosed-on/|title=Louisiana Boardwalk Foreclosed on?|date=February 16, 2011|publisher=k945.com|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref>
==Mayoral matters===
Walker worked in 2010 and 2011 with local and state officials to obtain two compressed natural gas plants, which offer public access to [[alternative fuel]]s.<ref name=cng>{{cite web|url=http://www.cngnow.com/news/post.aspx?id=22|title=Bossier City's second CNG station opens|publisher=''The Bossier Press-Tribune''|date=August 25, 2011|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref>
In 2012, Walker and other local and state officials participated with the entertainer Jimmy Buffett in a ground-breaking ceremony for the third Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, a $197 million resort [[casino]] in Bossier City. The name comes from "Margaritaville", a 1977 Buffet song. The singer performed early in his career in Bossier City. The project, includes a hotel and restaurant. Company officials said that the firm will provide more than 1,200 jobs and $12 million in local tax revenues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.margaritaville.com/news.html?n_id=3106&y=2012&m=3|title=Construction on Bossier City Margaritaville Casino Has Begun|publisher=margaritaville.com|date=March 1, 2012|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref><ref>The two other Margaritaville casinos are in [[Las Vegas]], [[Nevada]], and Biloxi, [[Mississippi]].</ref>
In 2012, Mayor Walker confirmed that taxpayers in his city faced the loss of $6.7 million in damages to the U. L. Coleman Company, a [[real estate]] firm in Shreveport, in the settlement of a long-running legal dispute in state and federal court. Moreover, the city expended $10.4 million in infrastructure improvements, the cost of a walkway over the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, and a $1 million park between CenturyLink Center, the municipal arena, and the proposed "Walker Place" development project. Demographer and public policy analyst Elliott Stonecipher placed the total loss to the city, including legal fees, at nearly $25 million. Stonecipher said the losses are "100 percent the fault of the government those taxpayers have put in office and strongly supported."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forward-now.com/2012/12/12/bossier-mob-takes-a-hit-from-u-l-coleman/|title="Bossier Mob" Takes a Hit from U. L. Coleman|date=December 12, 2012|author=[[Elliott Stonecipher]]|publisher=''Forward Now!''|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://npaper-wehaa.com/forum-news/2013/05/01/?g=print#?article=1896272|title=Walker Place, Part 2|publisher=''The Forum Newsweekly''|date=May 1, 2013|author=Elliott Stonecipher|accessdate=March 2, 2015}}</ref>
In December 2014, the city council once again rejected pay increases for municipal employees as Mayor Walker proposed. Columnist Jeffrey Dennis Sadow attributed the lack of funding for the raises to the recurring high costs associated with the operation of the CenturyLink Center, which opened in 2000. CenturyLink cost $1,500 per resident, or more than $55 million, nearly $20 million more than had been anticipated by city officials. Through 2013, the city spent $5 million more to operate the center. Minor league sports teams, unable to survive, abandoned the CenturyLink. In 2013 alone, the city transferred $750,000 into CenturyLink and still ran a deficit of $200,000. Those costs could have funded the pay raises. Sadow proposed that the city sell CenturyLink at a loss so that it not become a permanent white elephant on municipal expenditures.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thehayride.com/2014/12/sadow-bossier-city-fiddles-while-its-arena-burns-tax-dollars/|title=Sadow: Bossier City Fiddles While Its Arena Burns Tax Dollars|author=Jeffrey Dennis Sadow|date=December 22, 2014|publisher=''The Hayride''|accessdate=February 28, 2014}}</ref>
Despite such cost concerns, 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."<ref name=walker/> Bossier City also ranks on the ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine Top 10 list for job opportunities.<ref name=cng/>
An advocate of highway expansion, Walker has been the president of the Interstate 69 Mid-Continent Highway Coalition. Some 1,600 miles is expected to be added to I-69 over a period of years as funds become available to connect [[Laredo]] and [[Brownsville]], [[Texas]], with [[Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]]. An approved corridor supported by Walker linked Magnolia, [[Arkansas]], to Haughton in south Bossier Parish before connecting to Tenaha in east, Texas, and then heading south. Walker convinced lawmakers in [[Washington, D.C.]], to provide designated funding for the highway project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bizmagsb.com/bossier-city-mayor-helping-craft-future-of-i-69/|title=Bossier City mayor helping craft future of I-69|date=October 14, 2013|publisher=''Biz Magazine''|accessdate=March 2, 2015}}</ref>
Walker also ran without opposition for mayor for his third term in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ktbs.com/story/22384542/lo-walker-to-seek-third-term-as-bossier-city-mayor|title=Lo Walker to seek third term as Bossier City mayor|publisher=[[KTBS-TV]]|accessdate=February 11, 2015}}</ref> Early in 2015, he announced that he would seek a fourth term as mayor in the April 2017 municipal election.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bossierpress.com/opinion-mayor-walker-puts-bossier-city-on-notice/|title=Mayor Walker is putting Bossier City on notice|publisher=''The Bossier Press-Tribune''|author=Lou Gehrig Burnett|date=January 14, 2015|accessdate=February 3, 2015}}</ref>
Each year in the second week of November, Walker and the mayor of Shreveport, currently Adrian Parkins, host the "Shreveport/Bossier City Mayors' Prayer Breadfast", patterned on the national event in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mykisscountry937.com/shreveportbossier-mayors-prayer-breakfast-planned-for-this-thursday/|title=Shreveport/Bossier Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast Planned For This Thursday|author=Gary McCoy|date=November 11, 2015|publisher=KISS Country Radio|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref>
==Personal life==
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://710keel.com/bossier-mayors-son-found-dead/|title=Bossier Mayor's Son Found Dead, March 18, 2011|publisher=KEEL Radio|accessdate=March 21, 2011}}</ref> 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.<ref name=adelewalker/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=adele-m-walker&pid=172015162&fhid=6692|title=Adele M. Walker obituary|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=August 8, 2014|accessdate=August 12, 2014}}</ref>
Walker met Adele in Fort Walton Beach, [[Florida]]. The couple married at Ford Park in Shreveport and were together for fifty-two years. He took care of her in the final years of her illness. Since Adele's death, Walker married a widowed college sweetheart from his days at Louisiana Tech University, Connie Westergaard Cash, an artist who is three years his junior. The courtship of the older couple was carried statewide as a human interest story by the [[Associated Press]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/life/people/2015/02/14/bossier-city-mayor-lo-walker-fallen-love/23403909/|title=Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker has fallen in love|date=February 13, 2015|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Margaret Martin|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref> and ''[[The Washington Times]].''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/23/bossier-city-mayor-lo-walker-has-fallen-in-love/?page=all|title=Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker has fallen in love|date=February 23, 2015|publisher=''[[The Washington Times]]''|accessdate=March 1, 2015}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Lo}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:United States Air Force]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]
[[Category:Former Democrats]]
[[Category:Republicans]]