Walter Tucker, Compton Mayor, Community Activist, Dies at 66

Compton Mayor Walter R. Tucker, a dentist who spent three decades in public life, died of cancer Monday afternoon at Kaiser Hospital in Bellflower. He was 66.

Tucker was serving his third term as mayor, having started his political career in Compton as a school board trustee in 1967.

News of his death spread quickly through City Hall on Monday, just hours after officials there launched a private fund-raising drive to send the mayor to an experimental cancer clinic near San Diego.

City Clerk Charles Davis was on the telephone Monday morning trying to help raise the $5,000 a week that it would have taken to have Tucker treated at the clinic. Some of those raising money knew it was probably too late for the mayor, Davis said.

“Because of our love for the guy and respect for him, even though it might have been down a dark tunnel, we believed, ‘Give it a shot,’ ” Davis said. “He was a man who gave his life for this community.”

The Oklahoma-born Tucker, known for wearing cowboy boots with his business suits, became active in civic life shortly after moving to the city in 1957.

Fiercely loyal to Compton, he remained one of its biggest boosters even though his years on the school board, the City Council, and as mayor were some of the toughest for the community, which suffered from increasing poverty and gang violence.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the National Conference of Black Mayors, Tucker was a champion of such federal programs as urban redevelopment and jobs training, which he saw as crucial to the future of his low-income city.

Before the 1989 killings of five Stockton schoolchildren led the state Legislature to restrict the sale of automatic weapons, Tucker advocated gun control and championed that cause within the California League of Cities.

Within days of the Stockton incident, Compton became the first city in California to outlaw the sale and possession of high-powered automatic weapons such as the one used in the schoolyard shooting.

Tucker became ill last spring, but until recently continued to attend council meetings and to carry on his dental practice.

City officials said they did not know whether council members would appoint a successor to fill out the mayor’s four-year term--which ends in 1993--or hold a special election.

He was an extraordinarily successful vote-getter for most of his political career, which included four years on the City Council before he became mayor in 1981. When he sought his second term as mayor in 1985, he defeated Councilman Maxcy D. Filer by garnering 79.4% of the vote. Last year, Tucker was forced into a runoff but defeated his younger challenger.

Tucker had political rivals, but as Councilwoman Jane Robbins said, “He was always cheerful. He was always wanting to do things for people. I seldom ever saw him lose his temper.”

Despite their rivalry on many issues affecting the city, Tucker and Filer maintained emotional ties that dated back to the early civil rights days in Compton when blacks were fighting for their share of political power in the schools and in City Hall.

On Monday, Filer said he was too saddened to talk about Tucker. “I can’t say anything except that I give my condolences to his family and I have lost a friend.”

Councilwoman Patricia A. Moore said, “It is one of the most tragic losses Compton has ever had. He was so important to this community--to Compton’s history. We loved him dearly.”

Tucker was a lifelong member of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and a member of the Los Angeles Dental Society and the American Dental Society. He was also a past board president of the National Dental Assn.

He received his bachelor of arts degree from Los Angeles State College and his master’s degree from USC. He received his dental degree from Meharry Medical College, School of Dentistry, in Nashville, Tenn.

He is survived by his wife, Martha, daughters Keta and Camille, and sons Walter and Kenneth.