Lo Walker

Lorenz James Walker, also known as Lo Walker (born ca. 1933), is the Republican mayor of Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana.

At seventy-five, the self-described "workaholic" Walker, ran unopposed for a second four-year term in the April 4, 2009, municipal elections 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 Shreveport Times on learning that he had procured no opposition for reelection.

Walker outlined his 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.

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."

Walker was born in Shreveport, where he 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.

Walker is a retired United States Air Force officer, having been 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 in 1986 to become Bossier City’s chief administrative officer. Walker told The 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."

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). 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). In 1989, Walker, then a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully against Dement, who won the first of his four terms that year.

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.

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.