James McLemore Walker

Mac was born at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama on a July morning in 1928 to Benjamin Watson Walker and Ophelia McLemore Walker.  His parents brought him home to Milstead in a Model B Ford. While in high school at Starke Academy in Montgomery, he took the train home weekends, eager to be back in the outdoors and hunt. Mac attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute. There he enjoyed his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, and competing as a member of the Auburn swim team. He was drafted into the army following WW II. While stationed in Verdun, France, he proposed to his Montgomery sweetheart, Susan Riggs, who boarded the Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic for their marriage. Upon their return to Milstead, he farmed cotton and soybeans and later owned a printing company. Mac was a constant reader of history and science. He greatly enjoyed making things, building several boats over his lifetime, including a sailboat and a classic wooden boat. He also loved all things mechanical and delighted in restoring items to their working order ranging from a hit-and-miss engine to his 1984 Jaguar XJS. As a classic car enthusiast, he relished fall road trips with the Montgomery British Motor Club. His love of family and family history enriched the lives of all who had the privilege of hearing his stories. At the age of 90 Mac professed faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized.

Mac died Monday, April 22, 2019, at his home.  Graveside services will be Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 2:00 P.M. at the Walker Family Cemetery. Family and friends are invited to the family home afterward.

His wife Susan Riggs died in 2014. He is also predeceased by his brother Benjamin Watson Walker, Jr. and wife Frances Litchfield Walker; brother-in-law Frank Willard Riggs; brother-in-law Blucher Hamilton Cooper, and his wife Peggy Gray Cooper.

Mac is survived by his children, James McLemore Walker, Jr., May Walker Underwood, Ophelia Tanner Walker, Nancy Walker Turman (Doug) and David Riggs Walker (Cheryl); grandchildren, Rena Underwood Brown (Josh), Macy Underwood Dickinson, George William Underwood, Walker Braxton Turman (Beatrice), Charles Marshall Turman, Young Lei Turman, Julia Day Turman, David Riggs Walker, Jr. and Ragan Elizabeth Walker; great granddaughter Bailey Brown; and sister-in-law, Isobel B. Riggs.