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Betty Baker

On July 6,1927, Don and Zelda Patten were blessed with their baby girl Betty Ilene at her grandparents Ories and Lettie Cormany’s home on Canal St. in Roanoke Indiana. She lived there for most of her childhood with her family. She had lots of great memories with her grandparents and neighbors. Betty really enjoyed the Hartley’s who lived north of them, Mr. Hartley would sit on his porch and play the fiddle and holler “hello their Betty” and she always got a kick out of that. She was also close with their daughter Mary and would hang out with her often. Once while living there, it had flooded so badly that water was coming into their home, they had to hurry in to raise the piano off the of the floor so it wouldn’t get ruined.

They then moved to 345 Coe Street in Roanoke, and while living there they bought the Roanoke Creamery and made it into a home, that they moved into shortly after being finished. Her mom worked at the coil factory in Roanoke and with Betty being the oldest she would take care of her siblings. She walked to Roanoke Jackson Township School all twelve years and would sometimes walk home for lunch.

There used to be a railroad that went from Fort Wayne to Huntington, which is now where State Road 24 is. She watched as they tore up the railroad and replaced it with the highway that is still there today.

After she graduated from School in 1945, she worked at the coil factory where she met her husband Robert Jay Baker and married on August 2, 1947. They then moved in with Levi Ebersole on his farm where they took care of him, and Robert farmed the land for five years. In 1951, they purchased 80 acres with an old farmhouse in Whitley County at 10295 South 500 East, they put a lot of hard work in rebuilding the barn and adding a milk house doing all the work themselves. From 1947 to 1955 they had six children which all helped on the farm. In 1957, they built a new home doing all the work themselves along with family. Betty worked at General Electric plus helped with farmstead during this time. In 1960, they bought 160 acres of land across the road from them. They put in more hard work rebuilding a barn, grain bins and putting in a hog operation. In 1975, they had a fire that burned their machinery shed, so they had to rebuild. As the girls graduated from school and got jobs of their own, they eventually got out of the milk and hog business. The girls always worked along with them.

Betty drove a school bus for five years. They even did some traveling during the winter months spending time in Arizona and Florida. They had farmed other ground besides their own but now that she was semi-retired, they only farmed their own. She spent a lot of precious time with her children and almost every weekend with her grandchildren. All through her younger life she had enjoyed going all out decorating her yard for Halloween and Christmas, it was always the house to see!

In 1996, they started building their new home across the on the 160 acres with the assistance of family and help, then moved into their new home in 1997. She was also taking care of her mother from 1996 until she passed away in 2000. In 2001, they sold all the equipment and fully retired. In 2013, she lost her husband of 66 years.

Betty always enjoyed sewing cancer pads with girls at church, getting her hair done on Wednesdays, mowing her yard, and going to Laud Christian Church almost every Sunday. She loved to cook for her large family until she couldn’t anymore, she was a great cook, and everybody wanted her beef and noodles!

Betty is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, JoAnn and Don Shively, Carol and Gerry Scheurich, Mary Ann and Roger Scherer, Patricia and Terry Rhodenbaugh, Sue Ann  and Steve Lincoln, and Barbara and Rick McMullen; brother and sister-in-law, James and Carol Patten; 10 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and 24 step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband Robert Baker on April 7, 2013; sister and brother-in-law, Marilyn and Don DeBolt; brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Carol Patten; and brother, Jack Patten.

 

Visitation will be 2 to 4 and 5 to 7 pm Friday, June 2, 2023 at DeMoney-Grimes Funeral Home, 600 Countryside Drive, Columbia City. Funeral services will be 10 am Saturday at DeMoney-Grimes Funeral Home, Columbia City with Pastor Art Herrick officiating. Burial will take place at Glenwood IOOF where she will be laid to rest beside her husband. Memorial donations may be given in memory to Laud Christian Church. Visit www.DeMoneyGrimes.com to send Betty's family online condolences or sign the online guest book.