Frank Lewis Baker, 1901-1993

The Rev. Frank Lewis Baker, 92, died March 12, 1993, in Oak Hill Nursing Home, Staunton. Va. He had been at Oak Hill since January 1992. He previously lived in his retirement home at 13 Partlow Street until he moved in 1987 to Mt. Arlington, N.J., to live with his daughter and son-in-law, the Rev. and Mrs. Roger C. Snyder.

He was born September 8, 1901, in Burlington, W. Va., the son of Dr. Frank Lynn Baker and Mrs. Lucy Pierce (Arnold) Baker. Dr. Baker was a horse and buggy country doctor, riding by sleigh in winter, also a farmer, in Burlington, W.Va.

The Rev. Baker was a graduate from Keyser High School, Keyser, W. Va., in 1921, and from Asbury College, Wilmore. Kentucky, in 1925.

He was born just after the turn of the century with many changes since then, such as telephones, electric lights, automobiles, running water, radios, TV, fountain pens, aspirin, and Coca Cola.

He had 45 years in active work, serving 13 charges which included 24 churches, most throughout the Virginia conference. His first two churches were in Maryland before the old Baltimore conference was separated from Virginia. His first church was a five-church circuit at Flintstone, Md. Two of those churches were in Pennsylvania. There was no parsonage and he worked from his parental home about 40 miles away, driving a 1924 Ford coupe, his first automobile. He stayed there one year and moved to Frostburg. Md. There he had two churches and a salary of $1,350 a year. In 1930, he moved to Fairfield, Va., and had four churches. Marquis Memorial Church in Staunton was his next church where he built Wesley Hall, a modern educational building which soon became outdated. The churches that followed were in Newsoms, Suffolk, Richmond, and Manassas. At Basic Church, Waynesboro, he laid plans for a large educational building. When he moved to St. John's Church in Staunton, it was only one year old and did not have a parsonage. He proceeded to build his retirement home there. Because the lovely new church had a high pulpit, and the Rev. Baker was short in stature, a box was made for him to stand on behind the pulpit. Later he moved to Newport News, Falls Church, and to his last appointment in Lynchburg.

Upon his retirement to Staunton in 1970, he became pastor emeritus of St. John's United Methodist Church. He preached at many churches surrounding Staunton and Waynesboro in his retirement.

He collected and prepared a genealogy of the Arnold family ancestry and wrote poetry as a hobby. At a play for annual conference, he once portrayed John Wesley.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Nettie Baker, who died in 1979.

Survivors include a son, Frank Arnold Baker of Los Angeles, Cal.; a daughter, Chaucile Snyder of Staunton; a brother, Phil Baker; and a sister, Joanna Lyon of Keyser, W.Va.; four grandchildren, David Baker and Tanya Baker of Los Angeles, Janette Snyder of Chesapeake, Denise Lancto of Lakeville, Conn.; and two great-grandchildren, Benjamin Baker Lancto and Matthew Christopher Lancto of Lakeville, Conn.

The funeral service was postponed because of a blizzard and later conducted on March 17, 1993, at 10:00 a.m., at St. John's United Methodist Church, Staunton, Va., by Staunton District Superintendent James Holloman, and the Rev. James Cooke, pastor of St. John's. Internment was in Burlington, W.Va. Cemetery.

-Chaucile Baker Snyder