Everyone was welcome at the Walkers.
Theresa Walker, along with her husband, the late DeKalb County commissioner Lou Walker, worked to create in her Decatur home the same thing she worked to create throughout the greater DeKalb area: community.
“Unity was very important to her,” said her son, Reginald Tucker of Scottdale. “She was very concerned with people coming together.”
Tucker describes his home on Austin Drive as the house where everyone gathered during his school years. People were drawn to it, he said.
That magnetic quality came from Walker, a good listener with a calming presence who concerned herself with benefiting others and taking none of the credit, friends said.
Theresa Walker, formerly of Decatur, died in her Stone Mountain home on Oct. 18 of liver cancer. She was 68. A memorial service will be held Friday at 2:00 p.m. at St. Philip African Methodist Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Grissom-Clark Funeral Home is in charge of the cremation arrangements.
Walker worked tirelessly to better her community, said Morris Williams, chief of staff for the DeKalb County Commission. She was involved with several projects throughout her life of service, including the Lou Walker Senior Center in Lithonia and the initial stages of the DeKalb Medical Center at Hillandale. Walker was the consummate community outreach volunteer, Williams said, making phone calls and raising funds.
“That’s the kind of lady she was,” said Williams. “She didn’t go out for the glory. I think she just wanted to see her community be the best it could be.”
Walker was born Theresa Sheridan on March 19, 1945, in Chicago. She graduated from Tolleston High School in Gary, Ind., where she played the flute in the concert band and participated in several clubs. After attending Ball State University in Indiana and working for a time with Gary Public Schools, she married Louis Walker in 1976 and moved to Atlanta. Together they raised four children: a son from Theresa Walker’s previous marriage and two sons and a daughter from her husband’s previous marriage.
Walker always had a knack for business, said her sister, Doris Whorton of Idlewild, Mich. She was an organizer with an attention to detail. “I think she was born to be an entrepreneur,” she said.
After working in public relations for a handful of Atlanta businesses, Walker and her husband set out on their own business endeavor. They founded Paragon Productions in the late 1980s, a public relations firm.
In 1997, she and her husband co-founded the Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce, intent on building connections within the black business community. They dabbled in a few other business ventures throughout the years.
The Lou Walker Senior Center, opened in 2005, was her husband’s dream, but Theresa Walker made it a reality after his death in 2004. It was her proudest accomplishment, friends said. She had long worked to improve the lives of seniors, and her advocacy efforts only increased into her retirement and later years.
“If you ever met Theresa, you met a friend,” said Margaret Britton of Atlanta, a friend of more than 30 years. “Her bottom line was if it helps somebody, this is what I’m supposed to do.”
Walker is also survived by her sons Oranz Walker of Mabelton and Louis Walker Jr. of Chicago; daughter Angelique Walker of Chicago; and 6 grandchildren.
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