Playground and pavillion at Walne Park.
Now that members of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board have officially renamed Lake Highlands North Park to Walne Park in honor of Alan and Joan Walne and their family, I have a delicate matter to discuss, neighbor. All of us visit Walne Park regularly — it’s a favorite place for pickleballers, dog walkers, sand volleyballers, swimmers, picnickers and spray parkers. Community-wide events are centered there, including the Exchange Club’s Fourth of July Parade, Camp Sweeney’s Play for the Day and Young Life’s Crud Wars. The universally acknowledged center of Lake Highlands is there, smack-dab in the middle of Church Road between Lake Highlands High School and the aquatic center.
So how the heck do we pronounce the Walne in Walne Park?!? Is it “wall-knee” or “wahn” or “wall-n” or what, pray tell? It seems like we should all say it correctly — or at the very least, we should all say it the same way.
I’m an amateur genealogist, so I did a little research on the source of the name. Best I can figure, the name originated in the British Isles, particularly in England and Ireland. One researcher postulated that Walne may be a variant of Wawne, a locative name from the parish of Wawne in Yorkshire or potentially an English/Scottish variant of Walwyn.
Of course, tracing Wawnes and Walnes back to 15th century England doesn’t help us pronounce the name, so I went straight to the source, the man who has answered to the name longer than anyone else in the neighborhood — former District 10 Councilman Alan Walne.
“What I was told growing up is that it’s ‘Waln’ — they would pronounce the ‘ell’ with a roll. But, honestly, that’s a bit too much for some people. Normally, it just goes wrong,” Alan joked. “Whenever we’d go on family vacation, my dad would always pull out the phone book at a motel to see if he could find any Walnes wherever we were. In fact, my parents had gone to England, and he called this guy and said, ‘Hey, I see your name’s Walne, too.’ Of course, the guy thought he was crazy.”
“I think we kind of determined that ‘wall-n’ is the is the correct pronunciation, but it’s just so much easier just to tell people ‘wahn.’ Every now and then I’ll be somewhere, and they’ll say ‘wall-knee.’”
“One time Mom and I were at a function while I was on the city council,” Alan recalled, “and she was having an intense discussion with this lady. So, I asked what was going on. The lady had told Mom our last name was pronounced ‘wall-knee,’ and she was certain she was right, because she had known Herb Walne for a long time. Mom said, ‘I can assure you it’s not ‘wall-knee.’
Even within the Walne clan, there’s no uniformity.
“If you look, there are some Walns that don’t have the ‘e’ at the end, and there’s some thought that, at some point in time, there was a division in the family, and they changed it to W-a-l-n,” Alan explained.
If you know Alan, you may be surprised that he was willing to speak on the subject, and you may be very surprised he and wife, Joan, accepted the offer to rename the park in the first place. Step into the limelight to serve the community? You bet. Step into the limelight for recognition and attention? No, thank you.
The committee of civic leaders which organized the effort to change the name of the park told me they first floated the idea to Robert, their son. He barely let the team finish their pitch before saying no, his parents would not be interested in such a high-profile demonstration of appreciation. He didn’t even mention it to his parents. The committee then presented it to Joan and Alan. They respectfully and gratefully declined. The committee said they intended to do it anyway.
“We didn’t do any of this because we need or want recognition. Obscurity is much nicer,” Alan said. “But later we just felt overwhelmed that (the name change) would happen.”
Since both of them served on the park board, they recognize the level of agreement the board needed to reach regarding their esteem for the Walne family to make such a consequential and permanent change.
“That was a humbling experience as we listened to the meeting,” Alan said. “It was a unanimous vote, which is pretty overwhelming by itself. And the comments from people were very touching.”
If you still feel you aren’t quite sure how to pronounce the name, Alan says you needn’t worry. He and his family have always answered to various renditions.
“There are a lot worse things to be called,” he laughed. “If people mispronounce it, it’s okay.”
Walne Park is at 9344 Church Road.
Pickleball players at dawn are serenaded by Wildcat marching band rehearsal during their game.
