Long-time Neosho attorney Bud Walker dies at age 82

Neosho has lost a great citizen, remarked one old acquaintance of long-time local attorney Walter “Bud” Walker, who passed away Friday at the age of 82.

Another former colleague painted Walker as an honest country lawyer with a simple, bedrock sense of professional ethics.

Above all, Walker, a wounded and decorated veteran of the Korean War, was “a great American,” said former Neosho attorney Dwight Douglas on Saturday. Douglas said he knew Walker for the last 45 years of his life.

“He was a good lawyer who always took great care of his clients — and he had very loyal clients,” Douglas said.

Walker finally took down his shingle in December 2005 after 52 years of practicing law in Neosho. For all but the first two of those years, his office was at the same lot at 215 E. Main. According to a previous interview with Walker, when he first opened his own law practice, his office was located on the second floor of what is now Boulevard Bank on the south side of the Neosho Square.

“It was kind of tough,” Walker once described those early days as an attorney in Neosho. “It took a couple of years to get going.”

At first, Walker handled all types of general practice cases.

He spent much of his time as a criminal defense lawyer, where he said, “I think I tried all the murder cases” in the circuit. In later years, he mostly focused on probate cases.

Former Neosho attorney, as well as city judge, Newton County Prosecuting Attorney and U.S. District Attorney, Bert Hurn remembers when Walker first hung out his shingle. Hurn was city judge at the time but also ran a private law practice on the side. He and Walker knew each other professionally for more than a half-century.

“Bud was a quiet lawyer — he didn't make a lot of racket,” Hurn said of his colleague. “But he was honest, dependable and reliable.”

Hurn and and Walker were actually political opponents one year in what Hurn described as a “hotly contested” Republican primary race for Newton County Prosecuting Attorney.

“It was a hard-fought race, let me tell you,” Hurn said. “I won, but I really had to hustle to do it. Bud was a worthy opponent.”

The two only faced each other in court on one occasion, for a non-jury probate case, as their respective legal careers took different roads.

“We didn't cross paths very often,” Hurn said. “But (Bud Walker) was an honorable and upright lawyer — and, like me, a hill-country lawyer in a small town.”

It was Walker who succeeded Hurn as Neosho city judge. And it was Douglas' uncle, Garland Douglas, who took over that post from Walker. Dwight Douglas crossed legal swords with Walker a few times early in the former's career.

“He was always a gentleman but, on the other hand, he was also a very worthy adversary,” Douglas said.

Five years ago, at the time he closed his practice, Walker sat down for an interview with the Daily News,  where he talked about a few of the experiences accumulated over a 52-year legal practice in Neosho.

As a defense attorney, Walker said he won about half his murder cases against the prosecution, though he had noted he wasn't too proud of that record.

“Some of those who walked were guilty,” Walker had stated. “I never asked the person if he was guilty. You don't want to know. Because if he says he is guilty and you defend him, you've got a problem. And when you have one of those guys walk around town, it makes you sick at your stomach.”

Walker had also said he represented a lot of his clients pro bono.  

“My generation of lawyers were more educated along the line that you do something for the community you are in,” Walker had said. “And so defending those people who can't afford to pay you is just one of those things you do.”

Aside from Walker's talents as a long-standing attorney, Douglas remembered Walker as a loving family man, a skilled gardener and a community advocate.

“He was just a great citizen of Neosho,”  Douglas said. “Neosho has lost a great citizen of many years.”