Donna was born on November 17, 1943, at Balboa Hospital (U.S. Naval Hospital) in San Diego, California. Her childhood took her across the country and beyond - from Webster, Massachusetts, where she lived with her grandparents, Frank and Mary Marcinczyk, to Washington, D.C., Eva Beach, Hawaii, San Diego and Imperial Beach, California, and Somerset and Hamilton, Bermuda, before her family settled in Florida, where she graduated from Seminole High School. Her father served in the United States Navy, and the family's military life shaped much of her early years and instilled in her a lifelong sense of adventure and adaptability.
After high school, Donna worked as a dietitian at Seminole Memorial Hospital and later at Holiday Hospital & Sanitarium in Orlando. It was around this time that she met John Baker, Jr. at a USO event — she was cooking, he was at the pool table — and the two were soon married, beginning a devoted 45-year marriage that lasted until John's passing in 2010.
Donna and John made their home in Nashville, Tennessee. First, they lived with John's parents, John (Harold) and Elaine Baker, on Maxwell Avenue, before purchasing their first home on Ridgeway Drive in Donelson in 1967. There, Donna opened her home and heart to the neighborhood, caring for local children in an informal daycare and building lifelong friendships. In 1990, she and John moved to their longtime home on Guill Court in Donelson, where she lived for thirty-six years.
Donna spent 24 years working for the United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA), where she considered her coworkers a second family. She was a longtime member of Church of the Holy Rosary in Donelson, where her faith remained a steady source of strength throughout her life.
Donna is survived by daughter, Cynthia (Baker) Caluger; son, John H Baker, III (Stacie); grandchildren Jacob, Jackson, Joseph, Joshua, Katie; her sister, Maryellen; and brothers Robert, Jr. and David. She was preceded in death by her husband, John H. Baker Jr.; and her parents, Robert Lemuel and Stephanie Carole (Marcinczyk) Hodges.
Donna will be remembered for her warmth, her resilience, her devotion to family, and the home she built and shared for nearly six decades in Donelson.
There will be a Gathering of Family & Friends at Hermitage Funeral Home on Tuesday, September 8, 2026 from 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM. There will also be a time of visitation on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at Church of the Holy Rosary, 192 Graylynn Drive, Donelson, from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM. The Funeral Mass will begin at 11:00 AM with Father John Sims Baker. Jacob Caluger, Jack Baker, Joseph Baker, Joshua Baker, and Reuben SanNicholas will serve as Pallbearers.
Following the Mass, Donna will be laid to rest in the Garden of Peace at Hermitage Memorial Gardens, 535 Shute Lane, Old Hickory, TN. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared with the Baker family by selecting "Add a Memory" at the bottom of this page.
