Obituaries

Norman Walker's death was noted in at least three major U. S. daily newspapers. It was also reported in his home town's newspapers I found it surprising, though, that there was no mention of his death in the Los Angeles Times, which had printed most of his "exclusive dispatches".

Norman Walker

Big Spring, Tex., June 30 (AP) — Norman Walker, 69, retired Texas newspaperman who covered the Pancho Villa uprising in Mexico for the Associated Press, died here today. He was born in Bloomington, Ind.

Chicago Daily Tribune 1 Jul 1952 page C7

NORMAN WALKER

BIG SPRING, Tex., July 1 (AP) — Norman Walker, retired newspaper man, who covered the Pancho Villa uprising in Mexico for The Associated Press, died here yesterday at the age of 69.

Born in Bloomington, Ind., Mr. Walker went to El Paso, Tex., in 1907 and began his newspaper career as a reporter for the El Paso Herald. Later he became city editor.

During the revolutionary period in Mexico he was A. P.'s representative in El Paso. He later went to work for the McMath Printing Company in El Paso and became a vice president. In 1935 he was named head of the W. P. A. writers' project in El Paso. In 1943, while an employee at Biggs Air Force Base, El Paso, his health failed and he came to Big Spring.1

Survivors include four sons, William Walker of the Navy, Lieut. Col. Norman Walker, Jr., commanding officer of the New Hampshire National Guard; Charles Walker of Los Angeles and Allen Walker of Des Moines, Iowa.

New York Times 2 Jul 1952 page 25

Norman Walker, 69; Told Villa When to Make Raid

BIG SPRING, Tex., July 1 (AP). Norman Walker, 69, former Associated Press correspondent, who covered many important stories about Mexico's revolutionary period, and confidante of Gen. Pancho Villa, died yesterday.

Villa, anxious to impress the United States by defeating President Carranza, asked Walker in 1917 whether his timing was right for a raid on the town of Ojinaga.2

Washington Post 2 Jul 1952 page 26
1 Norman was probably a patient at Big Spring State Hospital.
2 At least two different versions of this story exist, one of which says Norman advised Pancho at Ciudad Juárez in 1913, and the other at Ojinaga in 1917. Both versions involved the attack's timing conflicting with the baseball World Series.