The family of Maurine Baker of Santa Nella, CA announces her passing, and invites all who knew her to remember her here.
Behind every name is a life, and behind every life are the people who loved it.
Maurine spent her working life as ['the US Navy took them both across the globe'] and held deeply to the Catholic faith — and was, by all accounts, loved by those who knew her best.
A life of faith is rarely a life of certainty — but always one of trust.
Maurine (Leach) Baker was born on November 14, 1926 in San Francisco and left this world attended and accompanied by her family on April 23, 2026 ninety miles away in Modesto. Inbetween, she thrived on a life of adventure that extended to both coasts of the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Greece, Turkey and across the world.
Her father, Francis Edward Leach, was formerly an owner of a milk delivery service in SanFrancisco, and when the Great Depression shook the world economy, Francis sold his routes to Borden's in exchange for a lifelong job. Frank, as he liked to be called, bestowed a love of San Francisco to Maurine. They went to boxing matches and baseball games together. He played Jazz piano and gave her lessons. The eldest of three girls, Maurine helped with family meals and looked after her younger sisters, Florence and Carmel. She volunteered errands to the bakery and loved fresh baked bread, olives, Dungeness crab, and, at the time, canned fruits. She loved roller skating in the city and was an avid swimmer. Her first car did not have working brakes, and she utilized downhill streetlights as backstops. Her mother, Lenor Carmelita (Murphy) Leach, was un-surprised to discover another wristband from San Francisco General Hospital which she frequented for various cuts and broken bones. She narrowly dodged Polio, and despite fears she would never recover, she survived what was believed to be "jungle rot" at the time.
She was baptized and married in the Roman Catholic church, and she was a graduate from Most Holy Redeemer School in 1940 (who to her dismay could never spell her name correctly) then Notre Dame High School in 1944. She certified in Home Nursing at the American Red Cross SF Chapter in 1944. Not one to be idle, Maurine was among the first group of women employed at the Navy shipyards during WWII and as a messenger for the military. She was briefly issued a motorcycle before it was lost to the cold, wet depths of the San Francisco Bay. Earning $1/day, she was a pioneer for women of the 1940's.
Maurine met and dated a Navy man in San Francisco. He was soon deployed to the Pacific in WWII, and as it was in those times, it was unclear if they would meet again. They wrote to one another. Much of their communication was censored with bold, heavy tiles of black ink obscuring potentially sensitive details contained in their wartime letters. After the war, they reconnected, and Maurine joined the Navy man for his next tour of service. Maurine married James Thary Baker on June 5th, 1948 in Norfolk, Virginia. He was an outgoing and affectionate man, but Maurine didn't hesitate a swift kick under the table or to eject a plate of supper out the window should his mouth occasionally get the better of him. Jim's career in the US Navy took them both across the globe. She lived in various post-WWII locales for many years: Hawaii, Japan, Italy, and multiple other state-side locations such as Virginia, Florida, and California. She was the President of the Enlisted Men's Wife's Club in Hawaii from 1960-1963, and she encouraged community and compassion for all peoples displaced by war.
Her pregnancy in 1949 was difficult. She suffered from eclampsia and collapsed at home. It is unknown how she was found or brought to the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA. There, she had an emergency cesarean delivery and gave birth to her daughter, Denise Ellen, on November 14, 1949. They both enjoyed the same birthday for many years and a lifetime of companionship.
After leaving the service in 1967, Jim and Maurine settled down by immediately embarking on a ten-year stretch of many more adventures. She was an inn-keeper in Reno. She managed a Safeway in Marin County. She was co-owner and book-keeper of a Union 76 auto shop and gastation in San Rafael and a car wash in Napa. She resided year round in a log cabin in the high Sierras Nevada Mountains at Pinecrest, when such a thing was still allowed, making friends with raccoons and braving the ice and snow every winter. They finally climbed down from the mountains and settled in Modesto forty-nine years ago in 1977. Once there, she managed Detection Systems for many years before retirement.
Maurine was a loving, and sometimes deservedly stern, caregiver for Frank and Jim whom she both adored. During Jim's final years, she attended to all his needs at home until his passing in 2012. They were married 64 years.
She was a self-taught, talented, and prolific painter, crafter and overall creator who left hundreds of paintings and creations of all sorts. Her pies, stews, and other culinary endeavors were mouthwatering and memorable. Maurine never met a stranger. She made friends wherever she went whether it be to annual painting conferences in Las Vegas and Sedona, to plays in the Bay or to trips around the world to places such as Alaska, New York, Oregon, France, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Or, whether she was riding shotgun with her daughter in her mid-90s during multiple road trips to New Mexico and Colorado.
A gifted storyteller, she would share stories of her joy-filled, depression-era San Franciscan youth and her family's annual summer long "camping trips" in the Sierras. These trips began on the first day school let out and ended just prior to the start of the next school year. Through them, she developed a lifelong love of the outdoors and nature. Or, Maurine shared hilarious stories about her mother Lenor's notorious cooking "skills". She never forgot losing their prized and basted holiday turkey as it slid across their kitchen floor. Tales and observations about her going with her father Frank's milk route in the 1930's throughout the City. She was a ball girl for the San Francisco Seals. She walked across the Golden Gate Bridge before it was open to car traffic. She was the home base and foundation for her husband and daughter during the Korea and Vietnam wars. She responded to shallow excuses with a familiar, "ah, shutup." She employed ice cubes to nudge stubborn grandchildren off to school. She knew how to keep people humble. She knew how to build people up and comfort them. She was extremely quickwitted, read voraciously, and had a remarkable memory. She is an exemplary representative of an already profound generation in American history. She inspired the generations who survive her to read, to think, to care and consider for those less fortunate, to love stories, to be courageous, and to adventure.
Maurine is survived by her daughter Denise who lovingly cared for her the last decade of her life. She was grandmother to Marian, Mikael and Jordan. Great grandmother to McKenzie, Ian, and Dylan. Aunt to 10 children.
She never knew why her first name was spelled the way it was spelled.
She really didn't like snakes. Nor did she like Needles, California.
She is and will be missed.
Funeral Mass to be held in Arnold, CA on May 16 at Our Lady of the Sierra Catholic Church at 1200. Wake with friends and family to follow.
