Suburbs

Walls is one of those places that is small enough to get overlooked when talking about DeSoto County’s cities.

The other four incorporated municipalities – Hernando, Horn Lake, Olive Branch and Southaven – draw the attention with their growth, some crime and retail. Major traffic issues provide headaches in large parts of the county.

The main thoroughfare in Walls is U.S. 61, with a portion of those travelers headed south to casinos in Tunica.

With that in mind, reporter Brandon LaGrone decided to look into Walls. What it is like. What its leaders see in the city tucked into the upper corner of Mississippi. With Memphis as its neighbor to the north and the Mississippi River forming its western doorstep.

Walls used to be the place you ended up if you missed the turn to go fishing at Lakeview. The place where a group of freshmen at Bishop Byrne attended grammar school – Sacred Heart in Walls. In more recent times, the town of about 1,300 was known as the home of Downtown Bruno, the wrestling manager, and the residence of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as he was coming up through the wrestling ranks asFlex Kavanaon WMC-TV Channel 5.

Bruno – Bruno Lauer – is now an alderman in Walls, and promoter of the city.

“We don’t have that big sprawl, which I’m proud of,” Lauer told LaGrone. “It’s very quiet. It’s relatively crime-free. It’s very safe, and it’s a nice small community.”

As for its long-ago past, Walls had ties to Native Americans, was named for Capt. June Walls, a Civil War vet and merchant in the area. Hernando de Soto probably got his first look at the Mississippi River from the area around Walls.

Robert Long, curator of the DeSoto County Museum, noted that when Walls annexed Memphis – Mississippi – in the early years of this century, it was large enough to incorporate and claim its status as a town.

Now the leaders in Walls face the dilemma of most small places. How to add services such as a grocery store and some restaurants. How to look at growth, but not become a big small city as has happened with most of its DeSoto County neighbors.

“We’re the final frontier. That’s how I look at it,” Mayor Keidron Henderson said. “We’re positioned to just explode with growth into the future, but it’s a quiet place. Everybody knows everybody.” - Suburbs editor, Clay Bailey

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