Walker family donation aids Fort Smith library

It indeed was a Merry Christmas for the Fort Smith Public Library.

Library officials and the family of Barbara Jones Walker gathered Tuesday to officially a recognize a $50,000 donation from Mrs. Walker and unveil the Barbara Jones Walker Arkansas Genealogy Department.

Walker is the widow of Fort Smith businessman William R. Walker, who passed away Nov. 21, 2010.

In addition to the renaming of the genealogy department, the donation will help renovate the Book Mobile into a Storybook Bus and support a future library branch at Chaffee Crossing.

“I just want to jump up and down and yell,” said Georgianna Yerton, a member of the library’s Endowment Advisory Council, adding that Walker’s donation will “help perpetuate the strength” of the library system.

“The Walker Family (Bill Steve) has been wonderful supporters of our library endowment in so many ways. We are deeply appreciative for this wonderful gift to the endowment that will provide future strength and stability for our library system and also assist with resources and needs the library has that the normal operating budget doesn’t allow,” noted a statement from the library.

Bill Steve Walker, Barbara’s son, joked that the donation covered his mother’s “overdue fines over the years.” Walker said the donation and renaming of the genealogy department is “very ironic” considering that his mother’s mother arrived in the area via an orphan train from New York.

“She’ll never be able to know that,” Walker said of his mother’s maternal lineage.

Walker also said supporting the library helps people learn how to support themselves. He drove the point home by reciting a quote from industrialist Henry Ford: “Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.”

Brian DeLung, secretary of the library’s Board of Trustees, said renaming the genealogy department also recognizes the many previous years of fiscal support from the Walker family.

“I look forward to seeing your name associated with the library,” DeLung said in his remarks to Barbara Walker.

According to IRS records, the library foundation ended 2010 with $2.653 million in total assets, up from $2.638 million in 2009 and $2.37 million in 2008.