Beth Marie (LaBarr) BAKER

BAKER, LABARR

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 3/19/2008 at 20:20:04

Wright County Monitor
20 March 2008

Beth Marie Baker, 90, of Clarion, passed away Thursday, March 13, 2008 at the Rotary Anne Nursing Home in Eagle Grove. Funeral services will be held Friday, March 21 at the United Methodist Church in Clarion. Pastor Don Morrison will officiated the 1 p.m. service. Burial will be held at the Galt Cemetery.

Beth Marie LaBarr was born January 29, 1918 at her grandparent's homestead located southeast of Clarion, the daughter of Harry and Blanche LaBarr. After graduating from high school she studied Home Economics at Iowa State Iowa University, where she met her future husband, Maurice Frank Baker. She taught in a country school near Dows for a year before marrying Maurice on August 12, 1938. The World War II years were difficult as she had two small boys to take care of while Maurice served as a Lieutenant J.G. in the Navy in the Pacific. Following the war they lived in Missouri and Kansas with their family that now included three active young boys. They moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1950 where Maurice received his Doctorate in Zoology. In 1952, the family grew one more with the birth of a daughter. In addition to being a loving and caring wife and mother, Beth found time to develop her artistic talents in silversmithing and millinery. Later, she studies various art media, including watercolor, oil and pen and ink and has gifted all of her family's lived with many beautiful paintings.

She is survived by her children, Whitney, Steven, Sidney and Adrian and their spouses; 13 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren. She is preceded in death by her parents; one sister, Lois; husband, Maurice; and two children in childbirth.