It was a long and winding road for Walter, between his birthplace in Naperville, IL and his final resting place in Lakes Wales, FL. His parents were Norman and Caroline Mathilda(Richmond) Lent who settled in Naperville in 1852, coming from New York state. The following are a few notes from Adele Lee (written in 1989) giving insight to Walter's life and way of thinking:

"Uncle Walter" (as I thought of him although we never met) was evidently a rugged individualist and an original thinker, as he was the only one of Norman's and Mathilda's boys who refused to become a blacksmith (like their father), but became an electrician. I do not know much about him, except that he worked for many years as a "master electrician" in Chicago; that he and his wife, Alice, separated or were divorced (I don't know when); and that he had enough curiosity about his ancestors to go to the Newberry Library in Chicago----he wrote a letter to family members----that deals with the Richmond (distaff) side of the family and reveals the presence of a sense of humor, and a certain sentimentality as well as affection toward members of his mother's family. I am not sure when he retired and moved to Lake Wales, Florida, but the attached postcard (a picture of him and his dog under a palm tree) is inscribed: HAPPY NEW YEAR 1926 Walter E. Lent", and a postmark on the back indicates that it was received in Iowa on January 5, 1926. We (my mother Ila Lent Petterson-Lee and my stepfather, Ener C. Lee & I) were living in St. Petersburg, Florida at that time (1924-1925) but did not know that Uncle Walter was in Lake Wales. I am sorry. I sure would have liked him."

A portion of Walter's letter to an aunt and cousin written October 20, 1919:
"I thought of the time you gave me the 30 cents when I was at your house on the 4th of July. The most money I had ever had at one time in my whole life, and I never forgot it of you, and lots of other little things that happen to a child to be remembered."

Walter married Alice Duckham and to them were born 4 children: Helen (1894); Norman (1896); Ruth (1900); and Alice (1908). All of his children had relatively short and tragic lives: The oldest daughter, Helen, died in 1957 of malnutrition/pneumonia; the only son, Norman, died at the age of 21 in Chicago, overcome by gas in his idling car (he was a chauffeur); Ruth Lent, the last survivor of the family died in 1969 of lymphosarcoma; and her sister Alice died at age 48 of pneumonia and chronic rheumatic heart disease. Walter's wife and daughters at some point re-located to Braceville, near Joliet, IL, living on Mitchell Street. None of the children ever married. The mother, Alice, and daughters Alice and Ruth were "homemakers" while the oldest daughter, Helen, worked as a hospital employee.

Walter's obit stated he lived in Big Gum Lake and died at Barlow hospital after a short illness. He had lived in Florida since 1925 and was the first electrician in Lake Wales. He had been a member of the Automotive, Mechanical and Electrical Unit attached to the Red Cross during World War I; maintenance superintendent for the Insul Company of Chicago; and general superintendent of the Columbia Screw and Machine Corp in Chicago. Survivors included one sister, Mrs. Minnie Hehn of Ontario, Canada and a number of nieces and nephews. He was buried in the Lake Wales Cemetery.