Cas Walker
Orton Caswell Walker | |
|---|---|
John J. Duncan | |
| Knoxville City Council | |
| In office 1941–1971 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Orton Caswell Walker March 23, 1902 Sevier County, Tennessee |
| Died | September 25, 1998 (aged 96) Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery |
| Nickname | Cas Walker |
Orton Caswell "Cas" Walker (March 23, 1902 – September 25, 1998), was a
Early life
Walker was born to a working-class family in Sevier County, Tennessee in 1902. He quit school at the age of 14 and spent several years working at different jobs around the region, namely at the Champion Fibre Company in North Carolina and later at various coal mines in Kentucky. In 1924, he returned to East Tennessee where he established the first Cas Walker's Cash Store in Knoxville with money he had saved.[1][2]
Walker's stores had a simple rural atmosphere that was popular with the city's working class whites and African-Americans.[3] He used his radio show and other innovative methods— such as scattering coupons from airplanes— to advertise his store's weekly specials. By the mid-1950s, Walker's chain had grown to include 27 stores that generated a gross annual revenue of $60 million.[1]
Politics
Walker was first elected to the Knoxville city council in 1941. He was elected mayor in 1946, but after a few weeks of tumultuous meetings and the firing of its own city manager, the city council managed to oust Walker in a recall election. He also served as acting mayor in 1959.[4] Walker was reelected to the city council the following year and remained until voluntarily retiring in 1971.[3] He continued to be a force in Knoxville politics into the 1980s.
As a politician, Walker successfully portrayed himself as a champion of small farmers and the
Walker continued distributing The Watchdog until the early 1980s, when a
Radio and television
In 1929, Walker created a variety show known as the Farm and Home Hour to help promote his cash stores. The show initially aired as a radio program on WROL-AM and later on
References
- ^ a b c Ajay Kalra, "Cas Walker," The Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), pp. 544-545.
- ^ a b Carroll Van West, "Orton Caswell Walker." The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: 17 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d William MacArthur, Knoxville: Crossroads of the New South (Tulsa, Okla.: Continental Heritage Press, 1982), pp. 148-150.
- ^ Mayors of Knoxville Archived 2012-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, Knoxville official website. Retrieved: 12 February 2013.
- ^ The photograph was published in Life Vol. 40, no. 12 (March 19, 1956), p. 38 ("A Look At the World's Week") and credited to Tom Greene, Jr.
- ^ Bruce Wheeler, Knoxville, Tennessee: A Mountain City in the New South (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2005), p. 73.
- ^ "The Everly Brothers - Biography". Archived from the original on 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). 1999-2005. Retrieved: 17 November 2008. - ^ Hanson, Bradley,""The Tennessee Jamboree: Local Radio, the Barn Dance, and Cultural Life in Appalachian East Tennessee"". Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2008-11-20. Southern Spaces, November 20, 2008.
External links
- The Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour — IMDB
- Museum of Appalachia — photos of Cas Walker in 1990
- Life photograph of 1956 fracas between Walker and J.S. Cooper
- Video: "Cas Walker Warning to Thugs"