Thursday, February 14, 2013

For WCCC Valentine's Day King Denzil Walker, Family Means Everything

For WCCC Valentines Day King Denzil Walker, family means everything to him. He is proud of all his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and he will talk about them all night if you let him. He was an accomplished athlete from Redding High School before joining the military afterwards. After his time in the service was done, he tried two or three jobs before farming for 11 years. For 15 years, he owned and operated the 169 Club south of Grant City.

His parents lived on a farm north of Irena, where they farmed all their lives; both lived to be 88 years. He has two brothers and one sister; one brother is still alive. He had six children; one died at eight months and five survive. He has 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Back when Denzil Walker was growing up, every small town, even the smallest, had a school. Redding would play teams like Maloy, Benton, Delphos, and Blockton. He said that the biggest change from when he was growing up was how people handled their money. Walker grew up in the Great Depression, when everyone saved even a dollar. Now, he said that people would spend their money up. He said that his favorite teacher at Redding was Mrs. Geiger; "She would teach everything that the other teachers could not," he said. He said that she had a strong sense of curiosity, meaning that she could teach everything from English to typing to geometry and would sit down with students and work with them until they solved difficult problems.

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