Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-11-19
James J. Walker Dies at IS;
Mayor in New Yorks Gilt Era

TumouS SopnIStIC0te
And Wit Succumbs
| To Clot on Broin
BY the Associated Pres,
\ NEW YORK, Nov. ls.-James j.
(Jimmy) Walker, Mayor of New
York during the glittering days Of
the prohibition era, the Wall Street
boom and night club pallor, is dead
at IS.
Death came painlessly last night
to the debonair, slender, little man
with the napier wit, who had come
to epitomize New York sophistica-
ton Of the get-rich-quick years
before the depression.
He never awakened from the coma
into which he lapsed shortly after
being taken to Doctors Hospital
early Sunday suffering from brain
clot. The last rites Of the Catholic
church were administered soon after
his admittance to the hospital.
Mr.. Walker, Mayor from 1926 to
1882 and last link between the plush
and gilt New York of Tammany
turkey baskets and torchlight pa
rades, and the modern metropolis,
had been in i'll health for the last
two weeks. complaining of severe
headaches.
Funeral Services Thursday.
On Saturday, his physician ordered
him to bed and the following day
he was removed to the hospital
where he remained under an oxygen
mask much of the time,
At his bedside when he died were
his sister, Mrs. Nan Burke; her two
sons, Luke and Paul, and another
nephew, William Walker, jr. MI.
Walkers two adopted children,
James j., jr,. 10, and Mary Ann, II,
were at the Burke apartment.
Funeral services will be at st.
Patrick's Cathedral Thursday morn
ing. Friends said private burial
services would be held at the Gate
OF Heaven Cemetery in Pleasant
vile, N. Y.
Jimmy Walker was known all over
the world as the playboy mayor.
Columnists called him New York's
night mayor. The -Four Hundred
discovered his charm and honized
him. This was something of an
added strain on a man who already
was making at least three appear
ances each night at social political
functions from Flatbush to the
Bronx, but he never weakened.
1t was the period Of the Wall
Street boom and, the citizen who did
not find himself at least $1,000
weather Con paper at the end of
the frequent good days on the mar
ket was not keeping up with the
times.
The Mayors appearance at af-
fairs was signalized by the orchestra
breaking into the strains of will
You Love Me in December as You
Do in May?", the song he had COM
posed when he thought of the thea
ter as a career.
The practice of greeting distin-
guished visitors with noon-hour pro-
cessions up Broadway from the Bat
terry was begun by Mayor Walkers
predecessor. John F. Hylan. Mayor
Walker improved them. He kept
Grover Whalen on as official greet
er, later making him police commits
sioner. THE gardenia of the law
quipped VIII Rogers.
Sachems Disapproved.
The blue lights which New York
additionally places before the house
nf Its 1eo1or 4s5es in front of the
Walker home in st. Luke's place Just
north Of Greenwich Village. There
Mrs. Walker lived-Janet Allen, his
boyhood sweetheart, the girl he
wrote the song for. But the Mayor
was staying uptown in a suite In
the Mayfair Hotel on Park avenue
across the street from the town
house of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
who was soon to be Governor.
Mayor Walker was seen more and
more with Betty Compton, q show
girl, who had had brief spotlights
in the musicals "Okay" and Fifty
Million Frenchmen." 1t was known
that the grand sachems of Tam
many, Alfred E. Smith and James
F. Foley. did not approve the life
he was living.
Then came the Wall Street crash
in October, 1929. A few days later
New Workers voted for Mayor. Flor
clio H. La Guardia, the Republican
nominee, had campaigned vigorously,
screaming from every platform
offered him that something was
wrong.
But the people reelected Mayor
Walker by a margin Of $4,000, a
plurality more than 100000 greater
than he had beaten Frank L. Water
man, the fountain pen manufacturer,
four years before.
Banquet Held Up.
A supposedly reformed Tammany
was gaining respect as a good"
political machine. Then something
happened. A banquet to honor a
newly designated magistrate "a New
York Police Court Judge appointed
by the Mayor was held up. The
holdup was mistake. Every one got
their watches and money back the
next day. But although no COM
plant was made to the police, the
story got into the newspapers. High
police officials and underworld big
shots had attended the party.
Samuel Seabury. a retired justice
who had been the youngest man to