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SOUTH SALT LAKE — The child of educators who offered a lifetime of service that culminated as Utah's first female governor who championed literacy, it was only fitting that Olene Walker's name grace a Utah public school.
On Friday, Granite School District officials celebrated a ribbon-cutting at Olene Walker Elementary School, which opened this fall and serves about 400 students. Members of Walker's family were on hand for the celebration.
The Granite School Board voted last December to name the new elementary school at 3751 S. 900 West in her honor.
Walker was also Utah's first woman lieutenant governor serving with Gov. Mike Leavitt. When Leavitt stepped down to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003, Walker served as governor from Nov. 5, 2003, to Jan. 3, 2005.
Her own bid for governor in 2004 ended in the Utah Republican Party's state convention when she was defeated by her eventual successor, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Walker was born in 1930 in Ogden to Thomas Ole Smith and Nina Smith and raised on a dairy and cattle farm west of Ogden. Both were educators and her father served as Ogden School District superintendent for 25 years.
She earned a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University, a master's degree from Stanford University and a doctorate from the University of Utah.
Walker and her husband, Myron, had seven children, and Walker served as PTA president at every school their children attended. From 1969 to 1992, Walker served as vice president of Country Crisp Foods, a family business.
In the book "Developing Leadership: Learning from the Experiences of Women Governors," by Susan R. Madsen, Walker said she benefitted from her K-12 volunteer work.
"When I look back on my experiences, I believe that I had many opportunities to write, speak and expand and strengthen many skills important for leadership," Walker is quoted in the book.
Walker's volunteer work led to part-time paid work as an education consultant. She also ran a federal program for the Salt Lake City School District and later founded and operated the Salt Lake Education Foundation, according to a profile written for Weber State University, where Walker studied as a college freshman before transferring to BYU.
After all of her children were in school, Walker began her doctoral studies, setting aside 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. to study, research and write her dissertation, according to the profile.
She was elected to the Utah Legislature while completing her doctoral degree. She served eight years in the Legislature, one of only seven women among 104 lawmakers at the time.
In her second term, Walker was appointed chairwoman of the Legislature's Joint Appropriations Subcommittee. She was elected assistant majority whip in her third term and majority whip in her final term.
After her legislative service, Walker became Utah's community development director in 1989. She was in that position when then-gubernatorial hopeful Leavitt asked her to join him as a candidate for lieutenant governor.
Walker died in 2015 at age 85.
