Don Baker

Amory- Donald Alfred (Don) Baker, 86, passed away Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at his home in Amory. He was born January 18, 1936 at his parents’ home on McAllister Road in Monroe County, Mississippi to Robert Dilworth Baker and Charline ‘Peggy’ McKinney Baker. He married Martha Elizabeth Parnell on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1960 in Aberdeen and they celebrated 62 years of marriage this past Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022.

Accepting Jesus as his Lord and Savior in childhood at Wren Presbyterian Church, Don worshiped at First Baptist Church of Amory where he served as a Sunday school teacher in the youth department, as Sunday School Director and as a deacon. He served on the personnel and executive committees of the Monroe County Baptist Association.

Don served in the United States Army Reserves for 38 years achieving the rank of Chief Warrant Officer.

He first found employment as the manager of Federal Compress and Warehouse Company in Amory during the 1960s. He managed the Gilmore Puckett farm in Bigbee in the early 1970s and then began working for Mississippi Funeral Insurance Company (later American Funeral Assurance) in Amory where he shepherded the company’s entry into 26 states. He retired from American Funeral Assurance as Executive Vice-President and Comptroller.

Restless in retirement he became a part-time fireman and paramedic for the City of Amory and was an ambulance driver for Monroe County prior to that service being privatized. His later years found him working regularly at the family farm on McAllister Road where he was born and taking care of three nearby family cemeteries where many of his ancestors dating back to the mid-1800s rest.

Active in the Amory community, Don chaired the Amory Planning Commission for many years, served on the executive committee of the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce and was active in the early years of Amory’s Railroad Festival, chairing the event in 1988.

Don was selected as Alumnus of the Year for Itawamba Community College in 1988. He served as a member of the board of ICC for over 20 years serving as President of the Board and on both the personnel and executive committees. He continued his service to ICC as a member of the ICC Foundation Board, serving there for more than 30 years. ICC accepted donations from friends and family and named a scholarship in his honor on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2016. Earnings from the endowment benefit a worthy student from Monroe County each year.

Don was a Mason for more than 50 years helping especially with the organization’s benevolent obligations. He chaired the J.A. Mayfield Lodge’s cemetery committee and in the late 1970s personally surveyed and laid out the boundary markers for the lots in the “new” portion of Amory Masonic Cemetery where he will be buried next to his parents.

Available records show that during his lifetime Don donated over 8 gallons of blood.

Always interested in numbers, he daily counted the number of words in obituaries calculating the expense for each. He would be appalled that his was this long.

Those who saw him on his daily rounds in the Amory community will miss his parting admonition to all, “Good luck in your work.”

Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Martha and his children Don Baker (Charlotte) and Beth Fortenberry (Keith), three grandchildren, Dr. Carlisle Livingston (Erin), Dr. Reagan Livingston and Sam Baker (Hannah), two bonus grandchildren, Tyler Fortenberry (Lauren) and Neil Fortenberry and two great-grandchildren, Genevieve and Eleanor Livingston. He is also survived by his Aunt Jean Johnston and his nieces, nephews, cousins and their families.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Peggy Baker Hadaway.

The family will welcome friends from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 11, 2022 at E.E. Pickle Funeral Home where the service will be on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.. Dr. Allen Simpson, Rev. Frank Bates and Bro. Jimmy McFatter will officiate the service. Carlisle Livingston, Reagan Livingston, Sam Baker, Keith Fortenberry, Travis Murray and Dan Rogers will serve as pallbearers.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to the Donald A. Baker Endowed Scholarship at Itawamba Community College, 602 W. Hill St, Fulton, MS 38843, the Rev. and Mrs. J.W. Parnell Memorial Scholarship at the Mississippi Baptist Foundation, P.O. Box 530, Jackson, MS 39205 or Gideons International, P. O. Box 107, Aberdeen, MS 39730. You may also donate a unit of blood in his memory.