Born October 28, 1940, Mr. Walter E. Gardner of Decatur told me, “I remember ‘hanging with’ my dad. He was taller than I was, and softspoken, but when he did speak, it carried some weight. He was well-respected in the community. I liked that, and I wanted to be like him. He died when I was eleven.” His father, Clifton S. Gardner of Lauderdale County, and mother, Irene Baylor Gardner, from Kemper County, moved here in 1938 after their marriage. They had nine children.
Walter’s oldest living sister Eloise Gardner Anderson, 92, lives in New York City, his brother Edgar Gardner, 86, resides in New Jersey, while his sister Valean Gardner Welch, 84, also lives in Decatur. The family were members of Midway Baptist Church, but Walter said he really grew up in two churches, Sunny Hill Baptist Church being the other one, because of the pastors only holding services at the churches once a month. He said, “Both Mother and Dad insisted on us all going to church together. We grew up in a Christian family, and faith was always a part of our lives.”
Their father was a farmer who did paperwood and crossties logging and worked in sawmills. His mother was a homemaker who, only 47 years old when her husband died, was a strong woman who raised her children alone after that. Walter said of her, “Mother was an excellent farmer and actually expanded it. We raised vegetables, cotton, corn, and she loved growing truck crops to sell. She lived to be 105 and six months.”
At nine years old, young Walter joined the church. However, when he was about 25 years old, he recalled, “I had been to Sunday School and we had a great class, discussion in the class. Then when I came back home, I had that experience which is hard to describe. Like you start running and nothing is after you. But Something got ahold of me. The Holy Spirit. I decided then to believe and give my life to Him.”
He began his schooling in the church school at Sunny Hill, where he attended first and second grades in the two-room schoolhouse. Third through twelfth grades were spent in the Decatur Consolidated Colored School, (later named Boler after the first principal C.H. Boler) where he graduated in 1958 as president of the class. Having graduated from Alcorn State in the Port Gibson, Mississippi, area, with a degree in biology and chemistry, he taught in the Shirley-Owens High School for seven years in Quitman, Mississippi. Using available grants, he studied three summers at universities in Kansas, Indiana, and California, and in 1967 Walter earned his Master’s Equivalency in biology.
As he was a senior at Alcorn, he met Daisy Lyles from Forest, who was entering school as a freshman. They were married in 1965 and began their family in 1967. In August 1969, to increase the family’s income, Walter started his own insurance agency named Gardner and Associates. He told me, “In 2003 we were able to buy Beatty Insurance in Newton, naming the combined agencies Gardner-Beatty and Associates Insurance Agency. At least 40% of our clients were white. In 2005, we opened in Atlanta with daughter Amy Gardner running it. We sold it in 2015.” Through the years he had received numerous civic and insurance industry awards before retiring in 2008.
Daughter Dr. Jennifer Gardner Jordan, DVM, is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and married to Darryl Jordan, an engineer for UPS. She graduated from Decatur High School in 1985 as Salutatorian. They live in Atlanta with their two sons, Matthew, 17, and Aaron, 16. Her sister Amy Gardner also lives in Atlanta, where she does I.T. for Comcast. She had been Valedictorian of her class in DHS in 1986. A third daughter Cynthia Dionne Gardner, married to George Brown, died at age 33 in 2003 from complications of Type 1 diabetes. Having worked as an R.N. for several years, she had two sons, Sean Gardner now living in Atlanta and Jaylun Brown who lives in New Jersey.
In 1971, the Gardners brought home their fourth child, a son Walter, Jr., who died tragically of crib death at the age of seven weeks. Then in 2002, ten months before their daughter passed away, Walter’s wife Daisy, at only age 59, died of colon cancer. He stated, “Dealing with death of young people impacted all of us, in the faith that the Lord would bring us through this.” “Only the Lord,” Amy added.
Daughter Amy commented of her mother, “She was a beautiful person inside and out.” They shared that Daisy was “a leader in her own way.” When it began, she was the Administrator of the Head Start program in Decatur, and as a church worker, she was leader of the youth ministries. They declared, “Everybody who knew her loved her. She loved people and was a role model for girls.” Amy confessed, “For a while, it was so hard to come home to visit. Every time we went to church, I would break down crying. Finally I said, ‘Lord, please take away that crying all day when I come to church with so many memories. And He did.”
She continued, “They were so wise, great at everything, handled everything, the kindness, the joy, the professionalism. They had such good will that the Lord gave them, and they gave so much to others, completely selfless. I believe the Lord called them for such a time as this. They never complained, and were a great team.” The Gardners raised their family in Midway Baptist Church, where he is the oldest deacon, Chairman of the Deacon Board and Superintendent of the Sunday School. He declared, “I love the fellowship of our community and our church. It’s small but has a great spirit and great fellowship. My pastor, Rev. Melvin Lyles, is a very wonderful pastor.”
On the political side, Mr. Gardner was elected as the first black Newton County Supervisor in 1991, serving eight years. During that tenure, he brought in $600,000 in Federal grant money to fund the rehabilitation of substandard rural housing, with about 46 homeowners benefitting from those grants. Also elected as Election Commissioner, he served there from 2008-2016. Amy contributed, “The Lord gifted my dad in so many things. A big part was as a civil rights leader. He is known for all his contributions to the county, with decades of so much work and good will.” Still a visionary, Mr. Gardner continues to be active in helping the community.
In 1988, he led in the establishing of the CH Boler High School alumni Association, was elected president then and for every term since. From a dream one night, Walter got the idea to purchase property and build the Boler Alumni Building. He told me, “By God’s grace, I was able to motivate our alum to have this place.” Finished in 2005, it was paid for in 2010. He, with co-founder Gailya Porter, also started the Underground Railroad Rerun, a group who motorcycle together, “to retrace the tracks of our ancestors as we move into areas.” They recently rode all the way to Canada. This group gives two scholarships each year.
Summing up his life’s work, Mr. Walter Gardner declared, “God is the Author and Finisher of my faith.”
Live for Jesus! He’s Coming Soon! You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
