Martha Baker

Amory- Martha Elizabeth Parnell Baker, 86, passed away Thursday, August 8, 2024 at North Mississippi Medical Center Gilmore-Amory after a sudden illness. The oldest of six children, she was born June 7, 1938 in Ft. Worth, Texas to Rev. J. W. Parnell and Minnie Frances Bailey Parnell while her father was a doctoral student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She married Donald Alfred Baker on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1960 in Aberdeen and they celebrated 62 years of marriage prior to his passing in 2022.

 Martha came to know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior in childhood at Peach Creek Baptist Church in the Pleasant Grove Community of Panola County, Mississippi and began her ministry as a prayer warrior for Him then. If you met her, please know that she prayed for you. She was a daily Bible reader and maintained prayer lists and prayer diaries. Her true desire was that everyone she encountered would come to know Jesus as their personal Savior.

 Upon graduation from Clarke Memorial College in Newton, Mississippi, she found employment as the church secretary for First Baptist Church, Aberdeen, Mississippi. She served in that capacity until she married and moved from Aberdeen to Amory where she settled in as a homemaker for several years prior to becoming one of the founding instructors of the First Baptist Church Kindergarten (later Wee Wisdom). Later years found her serving as a language instructor for English as a Second Language classes in Amory.

 A trip to the Southern Baptist Glorieta Assembly in New Mexico while a college student sparked a lifelong interest in travel. She enjoyed all types of travel including cruises in the Carribean, visits to the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama, the beaches of Cancun, Mexico, Broadway shows in New York City or to the parks at Disney World. Besides traveling for her personal pleasure, she also traveled to assist with projects providing aid to migrant workers.

 A nature lover she had an extensive collection of sea shells that she had picked up in her travels and chose the flowers in her garden specifically for their ability to attract butterflies. Family, friends and members of First Baptist Church will miss the more than one dozen cards, notes and letters that she sent out every week.

 In 2015 Martha honored her parents by providing the seed money for the Rev. and Mrs. J. W. Parnell endowed scholarship with the Mississippi Baptist Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi. Today, contributions to the endowment from family and friends yield sufficient earnings to benefit worthy Southern Baptist seminary students who are pursuing or plan to pursue a bi-vocational ministry. 

 Survivors include her children, Don Baker (Charlotte) and Beth Fortenberry (Keith); three grandchildren, Dr. Carlisle Livingston (Dr. 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. She is also survived by her sister Pattie Bailey and her nieces, nephews, cousins and their families.

 She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Donald Alfred Baker; two sisters, Georgia Pearce and Sue Proctor; and two brothers, Allen Parnell and Thomas Parnell. 

 A Celebration of Life Service will be held on Sunday, August 11, 2024 at E.E. Pickle Funeral Home, at 2:00 p.m. Visitation for family and friends will begin at 1:00 on Sunday, August 11, 2024 until the service hour. Rev. Frank Bates, Dr. Allen Simpson and Bro. Jimmy McFatter will officiate the service. She will be interred next to her husband in a private ceremony in Amory’s Masonic Cemetery at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to 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, Mississippi.