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Note: Notes from his daughter Sue (Law) Bleger:
Born on a farm near Geary, Oklahoma when it was still Indian Territory. Went to country school for the grades; went to high school in Geary for part of schooling; family moved to farm near Sheridan, Arkansas, in 1916 and he graduated from high school in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
He worked on a construction crew building Camp Leonardwood in Missouri, then enrolled in Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. His education was interrupted by WWI; he went to Ft. Riley for basic training. He was picked for officers' training and was sent to Camp Grant, Illinois (near Chicago). While he was in training, the war ended.
He returned to Kansas State and graduated with a degree in journalism. He was president of Sigma Delta Chi's journalism society. Got a job with a newspaper in Kansas City, Kansas, then took a job on the Lyons Daily News in Lyons, Kansas. It was there he met Lydia Hortense Watkins. Mr. Lawrence, the owner of the paper, sold it to Mr. Jones and he bought the paper in Council Grove, Morris County, Kansas. Walter went to Council Grove to work on the newspaper. Walter and Hortense married in 1925 and lived in Council Grove until 1943. Walter became advertising manager at the newspaper.
Hortense's mother died in 1939 and they returned to Lyons in 1943 to oversee the farm land Hortense had inherited. Walter was a timekeeper for headquarters for a company's oil fields, then became secretary of the Lyons Chamber of Commerce for a year. In 1946, he and Hortense started Law's Sporting Goods and Office Supply on the square and sold it in 1983.
Active in the Republican party, a member of the Lyons Kiwanis and an accomplished golfer. He and Hortense joined the Lyons Presbyterian Church in about 1949.
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