Olene S. Walker

Olene S. Walker

Olene Smith Walker (born November 15, 1930) was Utah's 15th Governor. She was sworn into office on November 5, 2003, shortly before her 73rd birthday, as Utah's first, and, to date, only female governor. She is a member of the Republican Party.

Walker's political background includes eight years in the state legislature including a term as Majority Whip. She served as the fourth Lieutenant Governor of Utah for the 10 years prior to becoming governor. She founded the Salt Lake Education Foundation and served as its director. She served as director of the Utah Division of Community Development. She has chaired the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, the Utah State Housing Coordinating Committee, the Governor's Commission on Child Care, and the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors.

She assumed the office of Governor of the State of Utah after previous governor Mike Leavitt was nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003. Walker served as governor until the end of Leavitt's term on January 3, 2005.

Shortly after becoming governor, she selected former State Representative Gayle McKeachnie to be her lieutenant governor. Olene Walker was the first female governor to be sworn in by a female Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, Christine M. Durham.

In a move that caused a degree of controversy within the state, the Utah Republican Party at its convention on May 8, 2004 elected not to place Walker on the ballot for the party primary (held on June 22, 2004), selecting instead Jon Huntsman, Jr. and Nolan Karras as the two potential Republican party candidates for the office of Governor of the State of Utah.

Huntsman went on to win the primary election with a great plurality of the vote. These events effectively ruled out any possibility of Walker being on the ballot in the 2004 general election. Convention delegates defended their choice by claiming that many of the delegates were already pledged to other candidates, because Walker had served only six months as Governor before the party convention.