Walter L. Clem is an Oklahoma newspaper man, with twenty years of experience in conducting live and enterprising weeklies in different towns in the northern and northwestern part of the state. He is now editor and owner of the Laverne Leader at Laverne.

Like many of the early settlers in this state he is a Missourian, and was born on a farm in Livingston County, January 6, 1876, a son of William H. and Sarah (West) Clem, both of whom were natives of Sullivan County, Missouri. His father was born in 1845, and has been a farmer all his active career. In 1897 he moved to Oklahoma and is now living on his farm in Roger Mills County. In 1870 he married Miss Sarah West, who was born in 1847. Their five sons and one daughter are: John A., now a salesman in South America; William A., a farmer in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma; Walter L.; Edith, wife of Warren Pugh, a farmer in Carter County, Oklahoma; Willis V., also a Carter County farmer; and Ralph, a telegrapher.

Walter L. Clem received his education in Livingston County, and also attended the Humphrey College and Business Institute at Humphrey, Missouri. His first twenty-one years were spent on his father’s farm, but in 1895 he moved to Oklahoma Territory and at Taloga established the Dewey County Leader, the first democratic paper in that vicinity. A year later its name was changed to the Taloga Advocate, which after editing for eight years he sold. After an interval of one year he became manager of the Taloga Times and held that post two years.

In 1907 he transferred his interests to the northwestern part of the state, establishing the News at Eagle City in Blaine County. After publishing that one year he founded the News at Oakwood, of which he was publisher four years, and in 1912 he removed to Laverne, then a newly established town, and founded the Leader, which has since been the most influential paper in that community.

In the past four years Mr. Clem has been very closely identified with the development of his home town in all movements for the public welfare. In 1915 he was elected police judge of Laverne. In a business way he is also interested in the manufacture of a patent whiffle tree, which is having a large sale and is a popular device uniting both simplicity and safety.

Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order. On November 25, 1903, at Taloga, Oklahoma, he married Miss Charlotte I. Cheney. Mrs. Clem was born at Sue, City, Iowa, a daughter of Chester A. and Louise Cheney, who came to Dewey County, Oklahoma, in 1895, and now reside at Taloga.