Charles Orville Walker was born February 17, 1929, in East Point, Georgia, and was baptized in the First Baptist Church of East Point in 1940. He served in the United States Army from 1950-1952, including 10 months in Germany. He earned a bachelor of commercial science from Georgia State University and a bachelor of divinity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jefferson Avenue Baptist Church of East Point ordained him in May 1954, and he pastored Lick Branch Baptist Church in Deputy, Indiana (1954-1956), and the First Baptist Church of Abbeville, Georgia (1956-1960), before settling into the First Baptist Church of Jasper, Georgia, where he pastored from 1960-1997. He was active in Baptist denominational life, serving as moderator of the Coffee Creek (Indiana), Little River, and Etowah associations; on the executive committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention for four terms; on the Georgia Baptist Historical Commission and Georgia Baptist Historical Society; on the Southern Baptist Historical Commission and the Southern Baptist Historical Society; and on the coordinating council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He was also active in civic life, a member of the Lions Club, the American Cancer Society, and the Marble Valley Historical Society, among others. He also taught in Mercer University’s extension program. He was the author of numerous books, articles, pamphlets, and columns about Baptist history, genealogy, and Cherokee history and culture. He married Betty Anne Hulsey in 1956, and together they had two children, Charles Mark and Paul Dorsey (d. 1983). Betty Anne died on May 5, 2000. Charles died on December 1, 2010.