Odis Walker

Times were difficult for Odis as a child. Not only was money scarce, but his father abandoned the family, leaving a wife and 6 children to fend for themselves. They all pitched in, doing the best they could to survive. Odis sold newspapers on Congress Ave., delivered telegrams for Western Union, carried luggage at the train station, and at Thanksgiving, plucked turkeys for 5 cents per bird. He left school at the age of 14, but he didn’t let the lack of formal education deter him from doing what he set out to do. As a teenager, he learned the tire business from his older brother, Pete. Before long, he started his own business, Walker Tire Company, which is still operating successfully today.

His curiosity, willingness to take on a challenge and persistence guided him through a diverse and interesting life. Besides being a tire dealer, at different phases of his life, he hustled pool, rode freight trains, played baseball, fast pitch softball, and served his country in the Air Force during World War II. He wrote poems, prose, a play, and produced, with amateur cast and crew, an outstanding performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. He was an inventor, a faithful husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend.

A constant throughout the last 60 years of his life was his love of God and the scriptures. As he grew in knowledge and wisdom, he became a well respected Bible Scholar and teacher, church deacon and elder, missionary, counselor and mentor. In one of his last conscious moments, he uttered this one simple sentence that revealed the contentment that comes from a life well lived: “Life is good, but Heaven is perfect”.

He was preceded in death by one son, David Lee Walker.

He is survived by his wife of over 70 years, Nelda Sue Walker; his sons, Roy Walker, Wayne Walker and his wife, Regan; a daughter-in-law, Sue Walker; 7 grandchildren, Nate Walker, David Walker and his wife, Julie, Emily Chumchal and her husband, Matt, Wendy Harmon and her husband, Paul, Lynanne Rhoades and her husband, Neal, Jennifer Rutter and her husband, Matt, Scott Walker and his wife, Shannon; 13 great-grandchildren.

Active pallbearers will be his grandsons and grandsons-in-law.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from six o’clock until eight o’clock in the evening, on Thursday, the 8th of December 2011, at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

Funeral services will be conducted at ten o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the 10th of December 2011, at Hyde Park Church of Christ, 310 West 43rd Street, Austin, Texas under the direction of Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

In lieu of flowers and customary remembrances, the family suggests donations be made to Tipton Children’s Home, P.O. Box 370, Tipton, OK 73570 or to World Bible School, P.O. Box 2169, Cedar Park, TX 78613.

Condolences may be sent to www.cookwaldenfuneralhome.com.

from goodlife magazine July 2011

by teresa Rebago

Odis Walker has no regrets for the nontraditional education he experienced when he decided to leave school at the age of fourteen. “My every experience as a young man helped me grow to understand people so much better. During the early nineteen-thirties, there was no money and l wanted to help my mother pay the bills. I’d find little odd jobs for a few cents, such as carrying lug-gage for people who came off the train. During the holidays, I’d pluck turkeys for the slaughterhouse at five cents each. For a while, I delivered telegrams for Western Union, where I had begun to learn Morse code. Then I just wanted to hang around with my friends. We’d hitch a ride on a freight train to San Antonio to play some pool. If the train didn’t stop in Austin on its return trip, we’d end up in Taylor and play more pool. I became a really good pool player in Austin and played with the best,” Walker adds with a chuckle. “My mother went along with my every decision by reminding me that I knew right from wrong, words that remained with me at all times.”

For nearly two years, Walker led a care- free life until he took a job in 1934 at his brother’s tire store. He learned all there was to learn about tires and saved his money. Within four years, he had saved $13.50, enough to buy his own used tire store just blocks away from his brother’s. The seller, Walker’s long-time friend, Requested that the purchase include an agreement of his continued employment at $10 a week, a request that Walker gladly accepted. After Walker returned from the service in 1945, he and his brother Pete combined their businesses as one to set up the family business at E. Fifth Street. Then, to accommodate their growth, they moved to 510 E. Sixth Street. They named their store the Walker ‘lire Company. “As a young businessman,” says Walker, “l tried everything; we had to hustle for business. We would leave notes on cars with smooth tires, offering a free case of Coca-Cola if they came by for new tires. We went from selling the tubeless tire in the nineteen-forties to being the first to sell radial tires in the nineteen-fifties.” The Walker Tire Company was the first to offer its customers pre-cured retread tires, was among the first Michelin dealers in Austin and the nation, and was the first to put lugs on tractor tires, Walker says. Today, the store has a big tire department and an auto and light truck department at the Lamar site, with a retail store on Bumet Road and another on Oltorf. “Most of our business is from word of mouth,” Walker says. “Our - patrons know that...‘if it’s in stock, we’ve got it,” he says with a hearty laugh. “Even Jay Leno likes our national-award-winning slogan.” he says.

“We’re the oldest locally owned, independent tire dealer—under the same owner since 1934,” said Walker. “Our family has kept this business together. My sons-Wayne, Roy and Lee—and a nephew and one grandson still run the business with me. My wife Nelda Sue has dedicated eighteen years not only to the business but also to our seven grandchildren. She’s played an important role in our success.” Pausing briefly, he adds, “I chose not to retire because I have a lot of fun here.”

Walker played baseball in the city league when he was a much younger

man and today he enjoys watching baseball games. His greatest interest, however,

is focused on work with his church. “ln the fifty-eight years I have worked with

my church,” he says, “l have established friendships with many people.” His congregation appointed him to serve as executive director in I990 for the group’s

first stage production, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. “It was very successful,” Walker recalls. “The grass-roots effort showed what a few inexperienced people are able to accomplish when they work together.” “Some time along the path of life, ”Walker reflects, “I came to realize that the good word is more acceptable in poetry so l began composing poetry based on pas-sages in the Bible. I designed a Bible study guide using my writings.” Then, with the same confidence one displays when talking to a best friend, Walker takes a moment to recite one of his favorite pieces, “The Poor Wise Man (Pickles in a Jar)?’ “I’m really not a writer,” he says in a humble kind of way, gathering his collection of work, “but I am writing an hour long play and a few songs to be used in the performance. If we don’t keep using our brain,” he explains, “we grow old.”