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FRANCES COOK WALKER

On April 18, 2004 one of Houston’s true history makers finished her course and ended another colorful era in Houston, Texas’ Fifth Ward’s Black history annals that surely will be remembered, by future generations, as perhaps, African American’s most prosperous periods following the Proclamation of Emancipation. Unfortunately, the passing of Frances Cook Walker wasn’t greatly noted as it should have been, which is a fact that sadden thousands of former Wheatley athletes and/or students who, no doubt, would’ve filled Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church, 4000 Sumpter, far beyond it’s capacity if they had known that Wheatley High School’s former coach Frank Walker’s widow’s life was being celebrated on April 25, 2004.
Even so, although she married into a great family and walked in the shadow of a great man, Frances quietly made a great deal of history herself, which was a salient fact that became evident during the Rite of Christian Burial, that was conducted by Celebrant, Rev. Walter J. Cerbin, S. S. J. and Concelebrant, Msgr. Patrick Wells, who were assisted by Deacon Rick Simon and State Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr. The illustrious list of active pallbearers (Melvin Allen, Abe J. Bryant, Felix Cook, Dwight Fields, Voris Glasper, Bobby Mills, Bennie E. Prater and Daryl F. Wilkerson) also was a testimony to the love and respect that Mrs. Frank Walker engendered during her long and productive life that became on May 7, 1919 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Frances Cook Walker was the fourth of John and Melicie Cook’s nine children, born during a time when Baton Rouge was on the move.

And, as fate would have it, one of the moves that took place would have a great influence on the future of Frances, who attended both... St. Francis Xavier Elementary School and McKinley High School in Baton Rouge during her formative years. Although it is highly likely that Frances still would have attended Southern University, even it had remained in New Orleans, but fortunately it had been relocated a short distance from where she grew up. History records, that the great school had its beginning in the Crescent City, in 1880 when a group of Black politicians, led by former U.S. Senator P.B.S. Pinchback of New Orleans, petitioned the State Constitutional Convention to establish a school of higher learning for “colored” people.
As a result of this petition, Southern University came into existence on April 10, 1880, by the passage of ACT 87 of the Louisiana General Assembly. This was the date on which funds were appropriated by the State of Louisiana for the establishment of an institution of higher learning for African Americans. The University remained in New Orleans until 1912, when Legislative Act 188 authorized its change of location from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. The University was reopened on the new site on March 9, 1914, under the presidency of Dr. J. S. Clark. But almost 25-years would pass before Frances enrolled in Southern where she met and fell in love with the school’s All-American quarterback from Houston, Texas, named Frank Walker.
After earning her Associate Degree and due to the untimely death of her father, in 1938, Frances immediately embarked upon a career as an elementary teacher in Oakdale, Louisiana to help support her family. This first assignment was followed a year later by a second one in Baton Rouge as an Adult Basic Education teacher. Her career was temporarily interrupted for an extended period by her marriage to Frank, in 1942-- a subsequent move to Houston--and the birth of her only child (Etta Frances Walker) in 1944. While Frank served in the U.S. Army during World War II, Frances bonded one of Fifth Ward’s most unique families, insofar as one could’ve searched the entire nation without finding a Black man who designed and built luxury yachts in his garage, as did the Walker’s Patriarch.

The extraordinarily skilled craftsmen also trained his two sons, Henderson and Frank, to be master carpenter/craftsman before they were allowed to pursue any other career. For sure, his daughter, Lullelia, got the best education that money could buy in that era, thus it’s not surprising that she became a legendary educator, who made history in 1943 when she-- not only served as a National president and later Grand Basileus, of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority-- but was largely responsible for establishing the Houston Chapter. Lullelia later married Pete Harrison and became the mother of two outstanding sons, the late Wheatley basketball star Pete, Jr. and his big brother Charles “Chocker” (Tex) Harrison, of Globetrotter fame, who like his grandfather also is a master craftsman.
Meanwhile, Frances had put her career on hold while her husband served in World War, II, but in 1946, after he received his honorable discharge, she resumed her pursuit of additional higher education. Thus, in 1948, she enrolled at Texas Southern University where she eventually earned both a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master of Science Degree in Elementary Education. In 1950, Frances began a thirty-five year association with the Houston Independent School District in the Fifth Ward and Denver Harbor communities of Houston as an elementary school teacher. Between 1950 and 1970, she served as a fourth-grade teacher at Atherton Elementary School; and, between 1970 and 1985, she served as both a fifth-grade teacher and a first-grade teacher at Scroggins Elementary School.

While serving at Atherton, she mentored a number of student teachers from both Texas Southern University and the University of Houston, served on numerous committees, helped to establish a developmental reading program, served as fourth-grade chairperson, and also served as the school representative for the American Childhood Education Association. While serving at Scroggins, she helped to establish a modem mathematics program, worked with the Teacher Corps at the University of Houston, and served as the first-grade chairperson. Frances derived a great deal of satisfaction from working with the many students entrusted to her over her professional teaching career, which ended in 1985 with her retirement from the Houston Independent School District.

During her professional career, Frances was associated with the Houston Teachers Association, the Texas State Teachers Association, and the National Education Association. In addition, during various periods of her lifetime, she had affiliations with the Girl Scouts of America, the Jack and Jill Club of America, the Fifth Ward Civic Club, and the Shady Tidwell Timbers Civic Club. She was an active member of Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in the Fifth Ward from 1943 to the time of her peaceful transition into eternal rest on April 18, 2004. African American News & Issues was told that she had just returned from Baton Rouge (to receive posthumous honors for her husband, who was the first high school football coach in Texas to win 100 games), passed while returning home.

Frances Cook Walker, who was faithful to her great husband until the end and beyond, was preceded in death by the legend called--Frank “The Mad Frenchman” Walker-- who had one of the most massive funerals ever held at Ross Funeral Home Chapel, 3618 Lyons Ave., in 1987. She is also survived by her daughter, Etta Frances Walker (Houston, TX); one brother, Charles Leo Cook, and his wife, Joan Cook (Baton Rouge, LA); two sisters-in-law, Lullelia Walker Harrison of Houston and Joyce Cook of Baton Rouge; and a host of nephews, nieces, great nephews, great nieces, and cousins throughout Texas, Louisiana, California, and other parts of the United States.