Newspaper, Citizen Profile of Jane Baker, LaSalle Parish, La.

Newspaper, Profile of Jane Baker




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Copied by: Pat Ezell. PatEzell@worldnet.att.net
Submitted by: Kathy LeMay Kelly, P.O. Box 219, Trout, La. 71371
From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal November 15, 2000, Section B, Page 15 
Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be added to the
Archives. 
A Times-Signal Feature...."Citizen Profile" A Very Special Salute 
THIS LADY INVOLVED IN HISTORICAL PRESERVATION
This week's Citizen Profile is no stranger to the people of LaSalle Parish. She's
been very involved in the historical preservation of the parish for many years
and has been instrumental in the organization and operation of the LaSalle
Museum.
Jane Baker has lived in Jena all of her life, with the exception of a short stay
in New York City when she was around 21 years old. She is very familiar with its
history and is one of the few people left who can tell about the parish from its
saw mill and oil boom days.
She was born on September 24, 1914, to William "Will" Baker and Bertha Hunt
Baker. Her family lived beside the railroad tracks in East Jena, now marked by
the overpass on U.S. Hwy. 84, on the south-side of the highway. Miss Baker still
lives in that same location, although the original homeplace was replaced in 1947
by a more modern structure.
Miss Baker's father worked as a fire warden for the state forestry department for
many years, and later in his life he worked for the police jury building many of
the parish roads and bridges found today.
There were five children born altogether, two boys and three girls. Of the five,
only two still reside in Jena, Miss Baker and her brother, Morgan Baker.
"We have always been a close family and remain so still today," Miss Baker said.
"We get together often as a family and really enjoy our times together."
In 1924, when Miss Baker was ten years old, her mother died tragically from child
birth complications while giving birth to the family's youngest child.
When she died, which ironically is 76 years to this month, the children were
split up for a short time as they went to live with sisters of their mother.
Miss Baker and one of her sisters moved to Shreveport, while the others moved in
with another sister in the Sterlington area.
The family separation was not for very long though, as Mr. Baker honored his
wife's last request that the children be kept together. After the end of the
school year, all of the children returned to Jena to once again live with their
father.
"I just can't say enough about my dad," Miss Baker said. "I've never met a better
person than him. He was an exceptional person."
With the exception of her fifth grade school year, when she went to Shreveport,
Miss Baker and the rest of the Baker children attended Jena Elementary School.
She remembers many things about those early years of school life in Jena,
including walking the railroad tracks to and from school each day.
"There were no school buses, so everyone had to walk to school," she said. "We'd
walk those railroad tracks behind our house to school and also to church."
The Baker children were also smart. Miss Baker herself had such good grades that
she was permitted to skip the third grade and went right on to the fourth grade.
"Back then, if you showed you knew it you could skip grades," she said. "And
that's what they let me do."
Without their mother, life was certainly different around the Baker house. The
children had to take on additional chores and duties to help their father out
during the hard times.
"Dad was working and was gone most of the time all day," she said. "We were sort
of on our own. But remember this was during the depression, so we weren't the
only families like this. A lot of fathers had to go off and find work."
Miss Baker recalls always having a good garden around the house, along with the
family Jersey milk cow, pigs and chickens. She said they were the typical family
during those years who basically survived off what they grew or raised.
"You know, even though those were hard times, we always had plenty to eat," she
said. "And my father would always be generous with what we had with others."
Because the family lived next to the railroad tracks, the house was always being
visited by those walking the tracks traveling across the country.
"During the depression, many men would simply walk the railroad tracks from town
to town searching for work," Miss Baker said. "We'd have a bunch of them come up
to our house that were hungry and my father always said don't turn any of them
down."
The men would stand by the gate in the back yard and the children would run
inside and fix them something to eat, usually some left over biscuits, and then
take the food out to them, according to Miss Baker.
"I remember that us kids would watch as they took off walking down the track to
see how far they would go before they would stop and eat," she said. "They
wouldn't make it very far before they stopped and ate what was prepared. I guess
many times this was the first they'd eaten in a long time."
Back during those years, Miss Baker also recalls that the railroad tracks were
quite busy with regular trains that traveled to and through Jena.
Most of the trains were freight trains, but one of the main forms of long distant
transportation was also the passenger trains that came through as well.
On one of the passenger trains, the engineer was from Jena who got to know the
Baker children well during his passes by their home.
"We'd always run out and wave at the engineers, hoping it would be the one from
Jena," Miss Baker said. "We liked him especially because he'd throw gum out to
us." 
When the children weren't chasing trains or doing chores, they occasionally would
find time to go to the local swimming hole, which came to be called The Baker
Swimming Hole. Miss Baker said the water that filled the swimming hole and creed
was spring fed, so the water was always ice cold. She also said that the
temperature never seemed to bother the children who would swim there.
It was during this era, this period in time, of which Miss Baker holds most dear.
This was the time when a person could go to the grocery store and give the
grocery list to the clerk who would then go around and collect the items while
you waited. It was during this time when doctors would make house calls and a
man's word was his honor. This is the period of time Miss Baker called the "Age
of Innocence."
Out of all of her experiences as a child though, one stands out as her favorite.
"The most exciting thing my sister and I ever did happened one day when my father
let us take the horse and buggy to town," she said. "I really don't even remember
what we went to town for, perhaps to go to the store, but just the fact that we
got to go by ourselves made it exciting for us."
In 1932, Miss Baker graduated from Jena High School. For the next year she stayed
at home and helped around the house and then she attended Northeast University
for one year.
In 1934 she moved to New York City, New York, and attended a fashion design
school there. After graduating from it, she found work at a fashion design house.
"New York was a nice place then," she said. "I never would have guessed it would
turn out the way it did."
After some five years in New York, Miss Baker returned to Jena in 1939 to take
care of her father, who was now living by himself.
She went to work at Sloam's Dress Shop in Jena and then later at the Dixie Store.
After some time, she stopped working and attended the trade school in Jena taking
business courses.
Following her graduation from the trade school, Miss Baker went to work at the
LaSalle Parish Clerk of Court's Office in Jena, under then Clerk Joe Nugent.
"I remember that the Clerk's Office used to be known as the information center
of Jena," she said. "If anyone wanted to know anything, they would call the
Clerk's Office."
During the time she worked at the public office, many funny events occurred that
still make her laugh today.
"One time, one lady came through and was talking about what all everyone was
doing - bad things," Miss Baker said. "And then she made the statement that
really made us all laugh later. She said 'You know, there is not many of us
saints left anymore.' At the Clerk's Office, we get to hear all kinds of things."
In 1967, at the age of 92, her father passed away, leaving Miss Baker alone at
the family homeplace.
She retired from the clerk's office in 1976, following 21 years of service. Miss
Baker then took advantage of the free time she had by traveling the world and
broadening her artistic abilities and insight.
"Oh, I made a trip to Europe, Holland, France, Spain and ended up in
Switzerland," she said. "At every place I would visit the art centers and take
in all their beauty. I enjoyed seeing all the countries, but I was especially
interested in seeing all of the art."
She also made several trips throughout the United States and still believes
America is the best country in the world to see.
Also during the time following her retirement, she started working at the LaSalle
Museum. Miss Baker was at the original organizational meeting of the museum
representing the LaSalle Art Club.
The LaSalle Museum officially started in 1982 and Miss Baker has been serving at
the museum ever since its conception. Currently, she serves as President of the
museum, a position she has held for three years.
"there is still a lot of things that need to be done that if a lot of people
would get involved we could see accomplished," she said. "We used to have more
people involved than we do today and we need more people to help work and get
involved. But I would like to compliment our present board. We have a good board
and they're helping out a lot."
Even though Miss Baker spends much time working voluntarily at the museum and
other organizations, perhaps her foremost priority is her church work.
The Baker family started attended Nolley Memorial Methodist church when they
first came to Jena. Growing up, Miss Baker remembers every Sunday morning working
the railroad tracks to church.
"My father taught the men's Sunday School class for 50 years," she said. "We were
always involved in whatever was going on…and still are.
Currently, Miss Baker serves as the Enlistment Secretary, the Financial Secretary
and serves on the Board of Trustees.
"I guess I do a little bit of it all," she said. "Wherever they need me, that's
what I do."
Her favorite memories of the church are from a bygone era, when the church was
merely a wood frame building and the family units were strong.
"(My favorite time) was when we had the old church, the old big frame building,"
she said. "It seemed like the families were closer and we had a lot of dedicated
Christian people teaching Sunday School."
One of Miss Baker's most special projects the church ever undertook, was the
creation of the nature trail, located in the woods adjacent to the church
bordering the creek.
"Everybody worked on it and we hauled in huge rocks from Winn Parish to line the
trail and planted all kinds of wildflowers, trees and shrubs along the trail,"
she said. "I'm especially proud of that nature trail."
It was mentioned earlier that Miss Baker has always enjoyed the arts, and after
her retirement she began to take classes from Mrs. Dorothy DeMars in painting.
Her home displays many of her paintings, which mainly consist of her other love,
flowers.
"I guess my greatest love is working in the yard with flowers and gardens," she
said. "I get the most pleasure out of flowers, but I love the arts too."
Miss Baker said she gets her "green thumb" from her grandmother, Mrs. Jane Davis
Baker, who along with her husband moved to Jena in 1903.
After moving to Jena and settling on the site where Miss Baker still lives today,
her grandmother ordered many flowers, trees and shrubs for the family yard. Many
of those original plants that she placed can still be found in the yard today.
One of those trees, a Crepe Myrtle, still flourishes in the front lawn of Miss
Baker's home, along with other flowers and shrubs.
"I hope that people remember me for my service to others and for my love of
flowers and gardening," Miss Baker said. "I wish that people would stop long
enough to look at the beauty around us found in nature - its everywhere."
When asked if she would like to send a message to the people of this area, Miss
Baker responded that her plea would be for people to stop littering the parish
and destroying all of God's beauty.
"I just don't understand. "We've got (garbage) containers sitting all over the
parish and they don't use them," she said. "To me, they're destroying nature. I
try to do my part and keep my section of the highway clean, but if people would
stop throwing their garbage all over the parish and keep it clean, we wouldn't
have to do that."
She also said that she would inform people to get more involved in their
community. "There really is a lot to do if people would just take the time to do
it," she said.
Miss Jane Baker truly is one of LaSalle Parish's greatest residents. She has
given so much and has asked nothing in return. For 86 years she has devoted her
life to others, never marrying, and seeking only to serve other people and the
promotion of arts, history, and her Lord in this parish.
There will never be another Jane Baker, and it is because of her selfless
devotion and dedication to this community that we salute her this week, as our
Citizen Profile.