Josephine Marie Baker

After a rich and rewarding life, Josephine Marie Baker, 105, of Valley City, ND, died Saturday, September 11, 2010, at the Sheyenne Care Center in Valley City. Josephine was born September 4, 1905, to Genevia Josephine (Keene) and Paul Joseph (P.J.) Coenen at Page, ND, number 11 of 17 children. While very young she lived in Ayr, ND with her sister, Mary Benzmiller. She attended school in Ayr and graduated from the eighth grade at Tolna, ND, where her father was farming at the time. Josephine married Fred (Fritz) Baker on October 19, 1925. Jo was a hard worker, cooking, gardening, washing clothes, and cleaning for several families in the Ayr community. She was troubled with a twisted crippled foot, the result of a farm accident when she was about the age of 4. She later developed polio as a teenager and had to then wear a brace on her right leg and high topped laced shoes for foot support. In 1941, Jo developed tuberculosis and spent 13 months and 4 days at San Haven in ND. Josephine lived most of her life in Ayr – 70 plus years – in the railroad section house which she owned. Jo moved to an apartment in Page in 1996, and on October 16, 2003 she moved to the Sheyenne Care Center in Valley City. Josephine enjoyed visiting, sports, helping people and loved to crochet doilies and sayings. She crocheted doilies until a couple weeks before her death. Jo had no children, so her nieces and nephews were very important to her. Josephine is survived by her sister, Edith Stockeland of Mayville, ND; many nieces and nephews; and many friends to whom she was like a mother, grandmother and aunt. She was preceded in death by her parents; 4 sisters, Mary, Elizabeth, Rose, and Georgia “Sis”; 11 brothers, John, Patrick, Frank, William “Bill”, Henry, Harry, Fred, John A., Pete, George, and Edward “Bud”; and several nieces and nephews. Visitation: Will be Thursday from 5-7 PM with a 7 PM Public Prayer Service at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Ayr, ND, and will resume one hour prior to the funeral. Funeral: 11 AM on Friday at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Ayr, ND. Burial: Buffalo Cemetery, Buffalo, ND