Laurel (Mather) Walker, a longtime journalist who covered Waukesha County for more than 35 years, died Friday, July 17, after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 71.
Walker was born Jan. 2, 1949, in Baraboo to Walter and Sybella Mather. After graduating from Sauk Prairie High School, she earned her journalism degree from UW-Eau Claire.
While in college, she met her husband, Robert Walker. Together they had two sons, Robert and Will, and two grandchildren, Abe and Owen.
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Walker served as an intern at the La Crosse Tribune before getting her first full-time reporting position at the Delavan Enterprise. Following a year in Delavan, she left to attend the University of Oregon, where she earned a master’s degree in science, public policy and urban planning in 1975.
After returning to Wisconsin, Walker joined The (Waukesha) Freeman in 1976, where she worked as a reporter for nearly 10 years. In 1986, she left The Freeman to take a position as a Waukesha County reporter for the Milwaukee Journal. Walker continued in that role until 1997, when she became a columnist for the Journal Sentinel. She retired from the paper in 2012.
Walker’s family will hold a private memorial service. Those wishing to share memories of Walker can email LaurelWalker@sbcglobal.net.
