A memorial service for Pastor George Walker Sr., 81, of Vicksburg, who died Wednesday, May 27, 2015, at his home in Vicksburg, will be 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 3, 2015, at Glenwood Funeral Home with Dr. Stevie C. Dunan officiating.

Mr. Walker was born Aug. 20, 1933, in Claiborne County to the late Henry Walker and the late Georgia Elizabeth Alkerson-Walker. He attended Claiborne County Training School in 1953, the Commonwealth College of Mortuary Science in Houston, Texas, in 1973, and the Laurel Police Academy in Laurel in 1988.

He attended Hinds Junior College Extension for emergency medical technician training in 1973, and was a field medical and ambulance driver for Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, from 1954 to 1957. He served in the Army Reserves’ 343rd Engineer Battalion in Vicksburg in 1957.

He skills included carpentry, auto mechanic, painter, roofer, bricklayer, mortician, ambulance driver and general maintenance. He was employed by Port Gibson Box Veneer from 1953 to 1954, and served in the U.S. Army from1954 to 1957.

He was employed by Glenwood Funeral Home from 1957 to 1958; Thompson Funeral Home from 1958 to 1972 and from 1975 to 2015; was a sheriff’s jailer from 1980 to 2012; and worked at Robbins Funeral Home in 1988 and Spencer Funeral Home 2012 to 2015.

He was a member of the Mississippi Association of Embalming, National Association of Embalming, served as president of the NAACP from 1969 to 1972, and was a member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

He was preceded in death by his parents, and one sister, Gladys Walker Neal.

He leaves his cherished and devoted wife Jacqueline K. Walker of Vicksburg; children; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; a sister, Bobbie Jackson; and nieces, nephews, and other relatives.

In 1966, Mr. Walker played a major role in voter registration, and that same year was the campaign manager for the first black sheriff candidate of Claiborne County.

He was a board member of Claiborne County Hospital for six years, and a past member of St. Peter A.M.E. Church. He was a member of the Living Word Baptist Church in Vicksburg.

Mr. Walker worked tirelessly under the leadership of Charles Evers, the late Rev. James Dorsey, and Earnest Jones during the Civil Rights Era in Claiborne County, and won the NAACP Rudolh Community Award for his actions during this period.

Mr. Walker was instrumental in the investigations of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission with the boycott of Port Gibson and its conclusion.

In 2001, he became a pastor, ordained to teach the word of the lord.

He was an icon of the Civil Rights Movement.