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Note: Lt. Col. Ludwell Kay Walker
June 09, 1923 - July 31, 2016
Lt. Col. Ludwell Kay Walker, USAF Ret., passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his loving family on July 31, 2016 at the age of 93.
He was the great-great-grandson of the founder of the community of Sattler near Canyon Lake, Wilhelm Martin Sattler, who came over from Germany with Prince Carl (Karl) of Solms-Braunfels in the 1840`s. What was Herr Sattler`s original homestead ranch is still the Walker family residence and the old log post office, homestead house, and family cemetery are all parts of the historical record.
Lud, or Kay as family members usually called him, was born to Edward and Lenora Walker in Puyallup, Washington on June 9, 1923 and, at the age of three, he moved with them and his older brother to a ranch in northeastern Colorado where he grew up just the way he believed every boy should, riding his horse through the snow to school and being watched over by the majestic Rockies.
When the war came, he was just a skinny seventeen year old, but he was determined to serve his country. So, stuffing himself with bananas, he managed to get his weight up and proudly enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Along the way, he graduated from Oklahoma University in Norman and earned his commission. As a newly minted First Lieutenant, he joined the crew of a B-29 in the Pacific theatre serving alternately as bombardier and navigator on scores of missions, including one he never tired of relating to his kids and grandkidsa perilous aerial flight from the Marinas Islands to a heavily defended aircraft engine factory in Naboya, Japan. Plagued by bad weather, enemy fire, and engine trouble, they pulled it off brilliantly, and that mission earned him and his fellow crew members the Distinguished Flying Cross for what the Pentagon would describe as determination, courage and skill reflecting great credit on themselves and the Army Air Forces. And that forever remained a crowning achievement of his 30 year career.
In 1949 he married the love of his life, Freda Irene Cline, a small-town girl from Ohio with worldly ambitions to equal his own. And, for the next 66 years, they and their three sons would travel the globe enjoying life as he continued to serve his country proudly.
He went on to earn his master`s degree and, in 1963, was promoted to Major and assigned to serve as Associate Professor of Aerospace Studies at Texas A & M University in College Station where he also held the distinguished position of Assistance Commandant to the 3000-man Corps of Cadets, putting him in charge of discipline, commissioning exercises and administering the oath of office to over 500 new officersarmy, navy, marines, and air force. He was later promoted to Lt. Colonel, and retired to his family ranch in 1972.
Lud was the epitome of an officer and a gentleman, soft-spoken with a sparkling (and rather wry) sense of humor, he loved to discuss politics and government, and prided himself on his knowledge of the constitution. He had his opinions, but he was never one to engage in a heated argument or speak ill of anyone. He was a private and low-ley man who loved tinkering alone with his hobbies, which included collecting guns, western memorabilia and models of cars and planes. But whenever someone needed help or advice, he would drop everything, and there was no limit to the time, resources and effort he would extend, out of the kindness of his heart, to help them.
He was a talented cartoonist, an accomplished guitar player, and a lover of Big Band music and Latin jazz. And he was into technological gadgetry long before our present techno age, even building his own Heathkit hi-fi system with booming speakers back in the fifties, before anyone ever heard of stereo.
He was a trained accountant, excellent mathematician and a skilled bookkeeper, and was a perfectionist when it came to organization, neatness and documenting things. He was a family man through and through, and he was a man of great personal faith. But he kept it to himself, only sharing his philosophies on special, rare moments of reflection.
Ludwell is survived by his sons, Edward Reed Walker II, Kent Walker and wife Brenda, and Bradford Walker and wife Frances, all of Canyon Lake, Texas; grandchildren, Patrick Walker, Gentry Walker, Whitney Walker, Weston Walker, and Easton Walker; and great-grandchildren, Tyler and Camryn Walker.
He is preceded in death by his wife Freda, who passed away in December 2015; his brother, Buford Edward Walker; and his parents.
Graveside services and Interment will be held at 10:00 A.M. on Friday, August 5, 2016 at Mountain Valley Cemetery in Sattler, Texas with Reverend Rick Bartlett officiating.
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