Locals in the Limelight

I sat down to interview Jim and June Walter in their home one evening after they had been at the home of friends enjoying oysters. June is a soft-spoken, polite and elegant woman who loves genealogy. Jim can have a gruff, intimidating exterior, but you know where you stand with him. He is honest, devoted to his wife and family, and has a great sense of humor.

June was born in Kansas and moved to Omak, Wash. after her parents had divorced, reconciled, and remarried within the year. She greatly admired her parents for making the decision to work things out and raise their children together. June was six at the time. She has two older brothers, Max of Yuma, Ariz. and Melvin of Tacoma. Her father was a commercial pilot, as well as a flight instructor. “Those were the barnstormer days. I remember hearing stories of him landing on the sides of mountains and people holding onto the wings to stabilize the plane because of the incline.”

Sadly, her father died in a plane crash at the age of 43, doing what he loved. Eight months before that, her younger brother Marvin was also killed in a plane crash when he was 14. He was a passenger with one of her father’s employees who was piloting a small plane (and survived the crash). It left a huge hole in June’s heart, because “he was the sweetest boy,” she told me, unable to hold back the tears even after so many years.

Jim Walter was born in Odessa, the son of Sarah Scrupps and Jacob J. Walter. He told me he was actually delivered by Dr. Bonney in the home on First Avenue now owned by George Rodeck. He grew up on the family farm seven miles outside of Odessa where his son Don now resides.

“If I could draw you a diagram, I could prove I am related to half the people in this town,” he told me. Jim has two younger brothers, Jay and Ron, who both reside in Spokane. Jim played football and tennis in school, but he told me his real passion was taking shop and ag classes. He does woodworking, fabricating, leatherwork…you name it. In high school alone, he made seven cedar chests and built two fiberglass boats. He showed me a leather tooled purse with an intricate design that he had made when he was just 15. Jim didn’t care much for sitting behind a desk studying or reading. He is a hands-on guy who prefers to be creating things. He credits his shop teacher Bob Gudgel for teaching him many of those skills.

Jim and June met while attending Wenatchee Valley Community College. After her father’s death, June watched her mother struggle to support the family. Her mother’s only work experience was in a fabric store, and she had never graduated from high school. June vowed she was going to be a self-sufficient career woman and get an education.Marriage was the farthest thing from her mind. When I asked Jim what his plans were during college, he jokingly informed me that he was there “to find a woman.”

Find each other they did, and in 1960 they married when June was 19 and Jim 20. “He made me feel safe,” June said. Apparently, she was legal age to wed, but males had to be 21 to marry without parental consent. “It is so embarrassing that my parents had to sign so I could get married,” he said. When asked if I could print that, Jim laughed and said, “Oh, go ahead…”

For a short time after they married, they lived in the little cottage behind what is now Lynn Schmidt’s rental house on Fourth Street. June eventually had to drop out of college because of finances, but Jim did return for a couple more semesters.

Their first child Laurie was born 10 months after they married. A consummate jokester, Jim said he used to tell people she was much further along than she was to watch the looks on their faces as they “did the math” in their heads. Their son Don and daughter Janet followed.

Laurie, the oldest, and her husband Matt Wilson have three children, Kaci, Aaron and Stephanie. Kaci and her husband Alex King have a son Simon, who is Jim and June’s only great-granchild. Their son Don is married to Susan Ryan and has four children, Jamie, Carla, Randy and Jennifer. Daughter Janet is married to Ronnie Manke of Ritzville, and they have two children, Katie and Adam.

After her kids were born, June enrolled in college at EWU to get her teaching certificate. She commuted to Cheney five days a week for two years. She taught English, shorthand and business education for five years before going to work in the family business.

Jim worked for the Grange Supply Co. for 10 years and then approached some local banks to get a small-business start-up loan. They turned him down, which fueled him even more. “Don’t tell a German he can’t do something,” he told me. In 1970, they decided to cash in a $2,500 life insurance policy to purchase some tools and have some operating money to start their dealership. Other than Jim, they had one employee, Larry Aucker, who was a parts man who also answered phones while Jim was in the field making sales calls. Ed Deife has been their longest-serving employee, having worked for them since the early 70s.

By 1975, Walter Implement had 25 employees and $5,000,000 in sales. That was also the year the new building went up. For 10 years in a row, they were in the Century Club which was Allis Chalmers’ top 100 dealers in the nation. The dining room hutch displays many sales awards bestowed upon the family dealership.

The Walters are humble about their success however. “We just got in at the right time,” Jim said. He also gives credit where credit is due (referring to June), “I couldn’t have done any of this without her.”

Jim and June have seen many changes in their dealership over the years. When June quit teaching and took over as office manager, she had to prove herself in a male dominated field. She would attend out-of-state corporate meetings and sometimes be the only woman there. She learned all the ins and outs of financial statements, taxes, inventory, writing a business plan etc., so she could run the office while Jim was in the field making sales calls.

There were also lean times. June kept telling Jim to quit taking in trades unless they were pre-sold. She explained, “We would have so much inventory, taxes due and very little cash flow.” Once Jim got a call from Allis Chalmers telling him they were putting him on a COD (cash on delivery) basis because of a $2,000 bill that was in arrears. Knowing what a tight ship his wife ran in the office, he asked her what was going on. Apparently, she had withheld that portion of the money due to slow delays in warranty money owed to the dealership. Jim called corporate and told them, “I am putting my wife on a plane to Dallas with our records to come and meet with you guys. If you are wrong, you are paying her way home.” Within one week, they received a check in full for all the back warranty work.

It became apparent that Jim and June were highly respected in the business, although Jim says “they are probably glad my son is attending those meetings now instead of me!” Today, the company employs 15 people, including daughter Laurie, son Don, son-in-law Matt Wilson and grandson Randy Walter.

Over the years, Jim and June have traveled extensively all over the world. Many of those trips were business meetings or contests won by their company. On a memorable a trip to Italy, they were to tour a tractor factory. Upon arrival in London, they discovered there had been a terrorist threat at Heathrow Airport. They were greeted by armed guards and dogs. June had a migraine headache, then was informed that there was an error on their tickets and that they would be delayed another four hours.

Their group left for Italy without them. When they finally arrived, they were 50 miles away from Bergamo, where their group was being housed. They needed transportation, and a taxi was 125,000 lira. They only had 120,000 on them. “I didn’t cry though,” June said. A slick guy driving a very expensive car was listening in and offered to deliver them for the amount they had on them. Feeling uneasy, their exhaustion won out, and they agreed to accept the ride. On the way, the driver pulled over and told them his tire was flat. “Then I started crying,” June said.

The driver made some phone calls and a short while later, a car roared up on the scene with rock music blaring. Two leather-clad occupants who spoke no English got out, and the prior driver informed Jim and June that the two would be taking them to their destination. On the way, June kept watching the kilometers, thinking to herself that they were going awfully fast. She quickly did some math in her head and realized they were doing about 100 mph. As a sign for Bergamo flashed past, she was relieved that perhaps they might actually get there in one piece.

Not long after they rejoined their group, one of the men was pickpocketed by a group of gypsies who descended upon them in the streets. On top of everything else, June’s suitcase was lost by the airline. Her bag had plans of its own, and decided it wanted to go to Spain instead of Italy. She had to wear some of Jim’s clothes for two to three days. I told her I would have loved to see the vacation photos taken on those days.

After everything that had happened to them, for some unknown reason the Walters decided that they would extend their trip for five days while the rest of the group returned home. They divided their time between Milan and Bergamo but realized quite early on that no one spoke English, and they couldn’t read Italian signs. They resorted to pointing at pizza through glass to get their meals.

“Who knows how many museums or interesting stops we missed because we couldn’t read signs. After we got home, we found out that the painting of the Last Supper was on display just blocks from where we were staying,” June told me. Due to the pick-pocketing incident, the guides had told them they needed to wear their money pack under their shirt against their skin. June got tired of carrying it, so asked Jim to strap it on under his shirt. She had forgotten that they needed to stop by a bank in Italy to cash some traveler’s checks. “Jim had to practically disrobe in the lobby,” she chuckled. “He wasn’t too happy about that.”

Going through customs to enter back into the States, June looked down to see a cute little dog with a “Friend of Agriculture” sweater on, sitting beside her. She thought he was so cute and kept telling Jim about this adorable little dog who was paying so much attention to her. The customs agent came over and asked her if she had any illegal items such as fruit with her. She confidently told them no, and they asked her if they could search the bag. June was mortified as the guard pulled out an apple that had fallen to the bottom. Apparently, the “cute” little dog had smelled it and kept vigil by her leg to alert the guard.

Jim and June are model examples of good, old-fashioned hard work and fair business dealings. They are proud of their children. “They are hard working, good parents and honest people,” they told me. June explained how much joy the grandchildren add to their lives. You can give them your best, you are more financially stable, and you don’t have all the stress of being their parent. The Walters have weathered the storms of life with humor and a true sense of partnership.

A neighbor once informed June while she was hanging laundry that she had heard she and Jim were getting a divorce. “Really?” June said. The nosy neighbor continued to tell her that June was supposedly taking off with the kids, too. Although fairly confident their marriage was solid, Jim was 12 hours away from home, and there were no cell phones. Jim said the air was blowing a little chilly when he arrived home late that evening.

We had been talking for three hours, and I wanted to ask them one final question. Who is REALLY the boss here? Jim, without hesitation, said, “She is!” June smiled and nodded in agreement. Perhaps the secret to their long, happy marriage is that they are in complete agreement on the important issues such as that. Either way, they complement each other perfectly.

Kathy Taylor is writing a series of articles on Odessa residents. When not contributing to The Odessa Record, she works for Schmidt Insurance.