Walker to serve an LDS mission

Former Utah Gov. Olene Walker and her husband, Myron, have been named missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to New York, where they are to work with U.N. diplomats.

"They want us to focus on making friends with some of the U.N. ambassadors where the church is having trouble with visas, or a country that does not allow the LDS missionaries to come in," she told KSL-TV on Wednesday.

The Walkers will enter the Missionary Training Center in Provo on May 30, and leave for New York City in June.

Walker, 74, was Utah's first women — and shortest-serving — governor. As lieutenant governor, she succeeded Mike Leavitt when he left the governor's post in November 2003 to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Leavitt is now Health and Human Services secretary.

Walker had consistently high job-approval ratings in polls — 87 percent at the time she left office — but state Republican delegates left her out of the 2004 primary race. Jon Huntsman was one of two Republicans who came out of the convention and he went on to win the primary and general elections.

In her 13 months as governor, Walker promoted reading for children.

The Walkers have been married 50 years.