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At 88 years of age, most people would be comfortably settled into a life  of retirement, content to watch their grandchildren grow and thrive.
Jane  Carson Walker is not most people. Far from retiring, the octogenarian  and widow of well-known artist Walt Walker, has just begun promoting a  new business venture that she intends will provide an additional legacy  for her family.
Walker is promoting her new DVDWalking Tall: The   Life and Wife of Walt Walker.
Its about how to start a small  business in art but it fits every category, said Walker, whose green  eyes and long silver white hair became its own trademark as she promoted  her husband business.
Walkers entrepreneurial bent is actually a  family tradition, because she said her grandmother (who was a Blackfoot  Indian) was selling real estate at the turn of the century in  Tuscaloosa, AL. Her mother was also a businesswoman in Detroit.
Jane  inherited her foremothers entrepreneurial inclinations when she and her  husband opened one of the first retail locations in Los Angels to sell  African American images.
We opened at Adams and Crenshaw selling  black art in the 1950s, recalled Walker. (Walt) invited all the  artists around to submit work to hang, and we were open everyday  including Saturday and Sunday.
From there the couple moved to 48th  Street and Crenshaw, and then closer to home at 89th Street at Western  Avenue.
And everywhere they went, Walker handed out cards that  promoted her husbands work. But that was just a small part of what  enabled the couple to make a living selling art.
I like people. You  cant be afraid to talk to people, said Walker of her business  philosophy. When you talk to people, you can sell them things, if you  impress them.
Growing up in a family of six brothers and sisters,  where she fell in the middle of the sibling pecking order gave another  skill which has been a boon to her business activities. I had to  negotiate, thats why Im I good negotiator. I had to negotiate with my  older sister and brothers to go with them places instead of staying with  the younger ones.
Walkers goal with this newest venture is to  provide a legacy so that her grandchildren will not have to work for  anyone else. Fifteen years before he died, my father gave us (she and  her siblings) each a part of an apartment building, because he didnt  want us arguing about money, and thats what Im trying to do with my  kids and grandkids, explained Walker who said she also intends to sell  some of her husbands prints.
And perhaps the biggest reason Walker  has started this new venture is because the feisty Inglewood resident  believes in staying active physically and mentally and making a few  adjustment to the pace, only when necessary.

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