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Congressional Daily Record
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June 22, 2026
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Download official Extensions PDFReturn to issue contextHONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE HONORABLE LAWRENCE COHEN ”LARRY”
WALKER, JR.
HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Monday, June 22, 2026
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, and with a gratitude that runs deeper than these few words can carry, to honor the life of a giant of Georgia public service, a peerless gentleman, and a man I was blessed to call my colleague and my friend—the Honorable Lawrence Cohen “Larry” Walker. Jr., of Perry, Georgia.
surrounded by the family he loved, at the age of 84. A funeral service to celebrate his remarkable and purpose-filled life was held on Sunday, June 14,
2026, at the Perry United Methodist Church. Some losses are not just the loss of a man. They are the closing of an era.
late Lawrence Cohen Walker, Sr., and the late Hilda Gray Walker. He was a son of Houston County from his first breath to his last—a native, a lifelong resident, and a fierce and faithful champion of his hometown for every one of his 84 years. He graduated from Perry High School in 1960, where his classmates, even then, saw what the rest of Georgia would come to know, and elected him Senior Class President. He went on to the University of Georgia, where he earned both his Bachelor of Business Administration and his Juris Doctorate in 1965—and where he became, and remained until his final day, one of the most devoted Bulldogs the good Lord ever made.
Mr. Speaker, consider what this young man did with the years that followed. In January of 1966, at just 24 years of age, Larry Walker was appointed the very first Municipal Court Judge in the history of Perry. Twenty-four years old, sitting in judgment, trusted by his neighbors. In 1975, he was appointed Perry City, Attorney—a charge he and his beloved brother David would carry together for 40 years. Forty years. Two brothers, serving one city, side by side. That is not a job. That is a covenant.
Georgia House of Representatives, to fill the seat left vacant by a young man named Sam Nunn, who was on his way to the United States Senate. And there, under the Gold Dome, Larry Walker became a legend. He served 32 years in that chamber—and for 16 of them, half his entire tenure, he served as House Majority Leader. Sixteen years carrying the burden of leadership, holding the floor, holding the line, holding people together.
Now, Mr. Speaker, allow me a personal word. I came to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1977. And it was there, as a young legislator finding my footing, that I came to know Larry Walker. We did not always come from the same place. We did not always see every issue through the same eyes. But I tell you what I learned from that man across those years: Larry Walker never once made a difference of opinion into a difference of respect. He could disagree with you on Tuesday and break bread with you on Wednesday and have your back on Thursday. He believed—he truly believed—that we were all sent there to do the people's work, and that the people deserved leaders who could find the higher ground together. He taught a whole generation of us how to do this work with grace. I am a better public servant today because Larry Walker showed me how it was done.
And he had something to show for it. You see it when you drive into Perry today and you see the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter standing tall—that is Larry Walker's vision made real. That community draws families and livelihoods and pride from Frito-Lay—that came to Perry because Larry Walker willed it there. He did not just hold an office. He built things. He left his hands' print on the soil of his home, and that print will outlast us all.
Georgia Transportation Board and was later appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia— still serving, still giving, still working for a state he loved. Through it all, in every chamber and on every board, Larry Walker was known for the rarest gift in public life: the ability to build relationships, to bring people together, and to work through their differences for the good of Georgia and for the good of his beloved Perry.
But Mr. Speaker, if you had asked Larry Walker who he was, he would not have started with any of that. He would have told you he was a husband. A father. A man of faith. He was a lifelong and active member of Perry Methodist Church, where he and his wife Janice sat together in the Pathfinders Sunday School Class. He gave himself to the Perry Kiwanis Club, and he helped found Crossroads Bank, which grew into Security Bank, because he believed in his community's future enough to invest in it himself.
And oh, how he loved Janice. In 1964, Larry married Janice Knighton— the love of his life—and they shared 61 years together. Sixty-one years, Mr. Speaker. They raised four children—Larry III, Wendy, Russell. and John Gray—and every one of them still calls Houston County home. Think on that a moment. In a restless world that scatters families to the four winds, Larry and Janice built a place so full of love that their children never wanted to leave it. He was a devoted family man who treasured nothing more than the activities of his nine grandchildren and his three great-grandchildren—there in the bleachers, there at the livestock shows, there for every one of them.
He loved simple, sacred things. He loved working on the farm alongside Janice. He loved hunting dove and quail in the Georgia mornings and sharing his fishing ponds with anybody who'd come sit a while. He loved his dog Lizzy and he loved his cows. He loved watching the youth show their livestock at the Ag Center he helped create. He loved his Perry Panthers and his Westfield Hornets, and of course, always and forever, his Georgia Bulldogs.
That, Mr. Speaker, is a life. Not a career—a life. Whole, and rooted, and good. Larry was predeceased by his parents, and by his brother David—his partner of 40 years—and by brothers-in-law Bob Kelly and Jeff Knighton. He leaves behind his devoted wife of 61 years, Janice Knighton Walker; his children Larry III and Adrienne, Wendy and Bob, Russell and Krissy, and John Gray and Sharon; his nine grandchildren: his three great-grandchildren; his sister Lynda, his brother Charlie, and a host of family and friends across Georgia who loved him.
And Mr. Speaker, the truest measure of a man is found not only in what he built, but in what he past on. So let it be recorded that the Walker name still answers the roll call beneath the Gold Dome: Larry's son, Larry Walker, Ill, now serves in the Georgia General Assembly—the very institution his father loved and shaped—carrying his daddy's legacy of honorable service forward into a new generation. What a gift, to a father, to know the work goes on.
Mr. Speaker, the Book of Proverbs tells us that “the memory of the just is blessed.” Larry Walker was a just man. He kept faith with his God, with his family, with his hometown, and with the people he served. He showed us that you can hold great power and still hold great kindness; that you can disagree without dishonor; that a life lived close to home can touch the whole of a State.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life of the Honorable Larry Walker, Jr. to Janice, to his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and to the whole community of Perry that he loved so well: the prayers of this House are with you. You did not lose him. You will carry him—in every fairground he built, in every quail field at dawn, in every Bulldog Saturday, in every kindness he ever showed. Heaven has gained a gentleman, and Georgia will not soon see his like again.
May he rest in peace and rise in glory. And may God bless the memory of Larry Walker.