Emilie Baker

Witty as ever, Emilie Baker, 93, of Spring Lake, Michigan, passed

away Friday, June 6, 2008.

 

She was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 24, 1914, to John and

Anna Stepanek, who ran a bakery in a Czech neighborhood. After

attending Ohio State University, which she left following her father's

death, she married sculptor, ceramicist, bird photographer, and

businessman Bernard W. Baker in 1944. They made their home on Spring

Lake, and in the 1950s and 1960s also lived part-time in Tucson,

Arizona, where they befriended many local artists, such as painter Ted

DeGrazia. They lived in green solar homes designed and built by Mr. Baker.

 

Mrs. Baker was the beloved matriarch of her family and dear friend to

many. A passionate birder all her life, Mrs. Baker was a member of

the Michigan Audubon Society. She and her husband founded the Bernard

W. Baker Sanctuary, Calhoun County, Michigan, in 1941. It was

Michigan Audubon's first sanctuary and America's first sanctuary for

the Greater Sandhill Crane.

 

As well as being an avid environmentalist, Emilie Baker was deeply connected to all of the arts. Her father was an opera fan, and she followed him in that enthusiasm. She herself was a talented creator--a stellar knitter and seamstress and, in the 1950s, a ceramicist and abstract expressionist painter. Her innate aesthetic taste in design and visual art preempted defining trends of the 20th century.

 

She loved to travel, and in 1993 was able to visit her ancestral village in the Czech Republic. She also spent many winters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she was a great swimmer and had many friends. In her later years, she was a dedicated reader, book club member, gardener, and amateur nutritionist, as well as a member of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake.

 

Emilie Baker is survived by one son, David Baker of San Francisco, and three grandchildren--Claire Anna Baker of Los Angeles, and John Vaclav Baker and Anne Brazil Baker of Austin, Texas--as well as Mrs. Baker's niece, Val Maresh, and special friend and Claire's mother, Joyce Jenkins. Emilie Baker was preceded in death by her parents, and in 1981, by her husband, Bernard W. Baker. Her equally witty younger sister, Mildred Maresh, of Solon, Ohio, unexpectedly passed away a few days before Mrs. Baker.