Jan. 30, 1912-Feb. 1, 2006
Valera Baker, 94, died on Feb. 1, 2006 at the Mennonite Village Nursing Home in Albany.
She was born on Jan. 30, 1912 to Harley and Katie Widmer Burck, longtime residents of Linn County.
She married Robert Baker on Aug. 10, 1933 and celebrated 64 years of marriage to him.
They moved to Goshen, Ind., in 1963 to serve the church through Mennonite Mutual Aid while Mrs. Baker worked at Goshen College and Greencraft Retirement Center.
In 1974, they retired and moved to California where they traveled as the MMA representatives for the Western Conference. They moved to the Mennonite Village in 1976 where they continued to serve in healthcare.
Mrs. Baker was preceded in death by her husband, Robert, in 1997; by her brothers, Clarence and Ernest Burck; and sister, Viola Kropf.
She is survived by her daughters and their husbands, Marilyn and Louie Lehman of Roseburg, Sharon and Ed Swartzendruber of Morton, Ill., and Roberta and Don Christner of Roseburg; son, Michael of Albany; sisters and their husbands, Grace Anderson of Albany, Lois Detweiler of Monroe, Wis., and Evelyn and Lloyd Fisher of Phoenix, Ariz.; brother and his wife, Willis and Mary Burck of Albany; five grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and a number of nieces and nephews.
Services were held on Feb. 6 at Lebanon Mennonite Church. Pastor Brent Kaufman officiated with arrangements by Workman & Steckly Funeral Chapel.