Baker City, Oregon
Della P. Baker, 105, a longtime Baker City resident, died Saturday, July 20, 2002, at the Evergreen Health and Rehabilitation Center in La Grande.
Her funeral will be Friday at 10 a.m. at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel. The Rev. Susan Barnes of the First Presbyterian Church will officiate. Vault interment will follow at Mount Hope Cemetery.
Mrs. Baker was born April 8, 1897 to Tom and Sarah (Davis) Thomas in Carroll, Neb. She attended a country school near her hometown. When she was 20 years old, and still in Carroll, she married Othal Baker. Othal worked as a farmer in Carroll for a good many years while the couple raised their four children, Delmar, Della May, Viola and Eldon. In 1940 they moved to Baker City where Othal became a contractor. The couple lived the rest of their lives in Baker City.
She loved gardening and was a “professional” babysitter. She once proclaimed to a reporter that she had changed the diapers of 92 percent of the businessmen in Baker City. She had been a member of the V.F.W. Ladies Auxiliary in Baker since 1975.
Mrs. Baker is survived by a son, Delmar Baker and his wife, Mary Anne, of Casa Grande, Ariz.; a daughter, Della May Taylor and her husband, John, of Portland; a son-in-law, Donn Ballantyne and a daughter-in-law, Barbara Baker, both of Baker City; 11 grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Othal Baker; a daughter, Viola Ballantyne; and a son, Eldon Baker.
Contributions in Mrs. Baker’s memory may be made to the charity of one’s choice in care of Gray’s West & Co., P.O. Box 726, Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, July 26, 2002
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor