Gerald Baker

Ancestors

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Biography

Gerald was born in 1931. He was the son of Lyman Baker and Helen Bacon. He passed away in 1992. Gerald was born deaf, attended the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs, Iowa from time he was in Kindergarten, nearly breaking the hearts of his parents having to leave a little 5 year old in a type of boarding school away from home. During those years deaf people were not mainstreamed in public schools thus the need for the Iowa School for the Deaf. He graduated from high school at the Council Bluffs school. He went on to become an excellent finish type carpenter and was employed by Sears and Roebuck as a carpenter for many years. He died of a severe lung disease.

Sources

• Family History

Adams County Free Press 1/9/1937

The condition of six year old Gerald Baker of Tingley, who is confined in the hospital with pneumonia, is still considered critical. He entered Thursday Evening but was considered slightly improved late Sunday. Little Gerald’s mother is remembered here as Miss Helen Bacon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Bacon, former residents.

Des Moines Register, April 1992

Gerald Lyman Baker, 60, of 421 S.W. Westlawn Drive, Ankeny, died of emphysema Thursday (April 2, 1992) at Iowa Methodist Hospital Medical Center. Services will be at 2 P.M. Saturday (April 4, 1992)at Calvary Lutheran Church for the Deaf, of which he was a member. Burial will be in Highland Memory Gardens Cemetery.

Mr. Baker was born June 10, 1931, in Mount Ayr and moved to Ankeny from Des Moines in 1966. He retired as a carpenter at Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Surviving are his wife Harriet; a son, Randy of Des Moines, a daughter, Kristiana Baker of Dallas, Tx.; five brothers, Darrel of Gainesville, Fla., Ralph of Blue Springs,Mo., Richard of Des Moines, Kenneth of Osceola, and Terry of Broomfield, Colo.; and three sisters Evelyn Bradley of Minneapolis and Rosemary Blauer and Cheryl Smith, both of Des Moines.

Tingley Vindicator, 8/3/1939

Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Baker took their son Gerald to the State Fair Monday where he took part in some demonstrations put on by his class from the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs.

BIRTH 10 Jun 1931 DEATH 2 Apr 1992 (aged 60) BURIAL Highland Memory Gardens Cemetery Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa, USA PLOT Section: Resurrection - Lot 40B Grave: 1 MEMORIAL ID 98501560 · View Source