Eileen Ruth Baird

She spent idyllic childhood years at her family home in the First Section of Garden Oaks, playing with pet chickens in the back garden, swinging, eating figs, and collecting mushrooms and live crawfish.

Eileen was the family’s nature girl. She would have preferred to remain in this enchanted childhood world her entire life.

She attended Garden Oaks Elementary School, Hamilton Middle School, Reagan (now Heights) High School, and the University of Houston, where she majored in romance languages.

Eileen married Dr. Ryushi Iwata of Sayama City, Japan, in May 1971. They had one son, Andrew Hideki Iwata, born in November 1975. They divorced in 1987.

Eileen was preceded in death by her parents: Martha Camille van Conet Baird (originally of Holt County, NE) in August 1985; and Murray Baird-Matthews (of Dumfries and Castle Douglas, Scotland) in July 1995.

Eileen is survived by her son Andrew and by her sister Jenny Caroline Baird, both of Houston.

She is also survived by several cousins, including Anita Hansen Bishop of Palm Coast, FL; Calvin Hansen of Harlan, IA; Hilary Evans Baskins of Pflugerville, TX; Robert Murch Walden of Pflugerville, TX; Carolyn Margaret and David Warren of Nashville, TN; and Lindy Matthews of Anacortes, WA.

Eileen is survived by her good friends Terry Williams of Garden Oaks, and the Arthur and Susan Smith family of Garden Oaks.

Eileen died on Friday, June 26, 2026, in Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital, of lung failure due to an antibiotic – resistant infection that had spread throughout her body.

We wish to thank the staff of Memorial Hermann, especially Dr. Victoria Tang, for their expert and loving service.

If you wish to remember Eileen, you could make a gift to Memorial Hermann or the Texas Medical Center, specified for research in the field of antibiotic – resistant microbes. Or you could make a gift to your favorite animal shelter.