Ruby Baker

Ruby Lee Baker, 95, loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed to be with the Lord on Friday, June 6th, 2025. Ruby was born on February 23, 1930, in Wichita, Kansas to parents, Richard and Ella (Foster) Coleman. She was their sixth child in a family that reached 10 children. Her siblings (in order of birth) were Helen, Juanita, Irene, Harold, Betty, Ruby, Norma, Phyllis, Ronald and Madelyn. This family was always looking out for each other, and very tight knit. Growing up they organized a bowling team made up of five sisters and 2 reserves in case any of the team couldn’t make it to the bowling alley. They also traveled to some of the most interesting places for tournaments, including, Las Vegas, Seattle, St. Louis, Denver, Hawaii, and others. She was a hard worker and started at the age of 16 at the Orpheum Theater, as an usher, and worked later at the Dockum Drug store at the soda fountain on the corner of Broadway and Douglas in Wichita.

Ruby was the mother of 4 children, which she dearly loved and made sure they knew how much she loved them. She was a very good mother and made sure that her children were involved in competitive swimming, dance lessons and recitals, and other types of recreation like snow skiing, boating, water skiing, club and boy scouts and frequent vacations to other parts of the United States.

After marrying Orin Baker in January 1949, she took a job with Boeing as a file clerk in the Manufacturing Release Group. She soon transferred to the Accounts Payable Group of the Finance Department where she worked for 8 years.

Later, she applied for a job at the Post Office as a Rural Postal Letter Carrier. She eventually became a Postal Clerk and retired from the Andover Post Office in 1992 with 20 years’ service.

Her first son, Kerry, was born in October 1949. After 9 years of married life and caring for Kerry, she and her husband decided to have a few more children. After all she came from and was used to a big family. She worked at several different part-time jobs while raising 3 more children, John, Daniel and Susan. One of her jobs was with a grocery chain being a comparable pricing worker. During the time of part-time employment, she was taking her children to places for their development as mentioned earlier. Her children were very appreciative of her efforts to give them the opportunities that she didn’t have growing up. She would even volunteer her time to go camping with the girl scouts.

Another of her many talents was painting with oil paintings that she was involved with one of her sisters. They were in a group of similarly interested people at a friend’s home close to our own home. She painted about a dozen very nicely framed oil paintings in the 3 years her group stayed together and those adorned the walls of her home.

In the latter part of 1991, she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. After deciding on surgery, the surgery was done at Mayo Clinic. She and her husband spent about 10 days there with surgery and implant. She had follow-up at the clinic once every 6 weeks for 9 months. Every other month she would get chemotherapy at the Mayo Clinic and at the cancer center in Wichita. After 5 years of follow-up medication, she was free of any cancer.

She loved boating and skiing, so her and her husband decided to purchase a mobile home in 1979 on Beaver Lake in Arkansas. Everyone in the family enjoyed vacationing there and so after moving the mobile to another lot, Orin and Ruby built a medium sized two-story vacation home in 1985. She loved to boat on the lake and was an accomplished water skier.

Orin and Ruby’s married life has been filled with joy and happiness. They were together for 76 ½ years at the time of her passing.

Ruby was preceded in death by her mother, father and eight siblings, as well as granddaughter Rachel Baker, and grandson, Trevor McCoy.

She is lovingly survived by her spouse Orin, her sisters, Madelyn (Bill) Overton and Norma Berkowitz, children, Kerry and wife Janeen, John and wife Glenda, Daniel Baker, and Susan McCoy. Grandchildren, Corey and wife Danielle, Aubrie and husband Kevin, Roxanne McAdam, Travis Baker, Conor Baker, Christopher Baker, Ryan McCoy and wife Lauren, and Christian McCoy. Great-grandchildren Madysen and husband John, Rylie, Colin, Payton, Coral, Chanel, Amara, and Aurora.

A celebration of her life will be held on June 26th, at 11:00am at the Cozine Life Events Center with a private family dinner immediately following. In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established with the Wichita Cancer Foundation, 1035 N. Emporia Ave. Ste. 195, Wichita, Kansas 67214.