A military brat, Leslie Walker was born in Newport, R.I., but called nowhere home until she dropped roots in Maryland in the 1980s.
She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Virginia, eventually covering Maryland politics for the Baltimore Evening Sun before joining The Washington Post as an editor in 1991.
Leslie wrote "Sudden Fury," a true-crime book that highlighted problems with the nation's foster care system and was made into an NBC movie in 1993.
