Mrs. Bessie Lee Driscoll Baker

A memorial service will be held at 12 noon Friday, November 26, 2010, in the Family Life Chapel of First United Methodist Church, Ozark, Alabama with Dr. Christian Eckert and Dr. Billy Gaither officiating and Fuqua-Bankston Funeral Home directing. The family requests that memorials be made to an organization of your choice or, to Frisco City United Methodist Church, Frisco City, AL; First United Methodist Church, Ozark, AL; or Covenant Hospice.

The family legend was that if Jeremiah and Mary Russell Driscoll’s fifth child was another son, they were giving him away. The baby born June 26, 1920, was a daughter; Bessie Lee would grow up in a household of six brothers. Her personality and values would be formed by that big family, the country town of Frisco City, Alabama, the Great Depression and World War II.

Bess graduated from high school in 1938. Because college was not an option, she went to work for Rural Electric of Alabama. In 1942 five of the six brothers, the youngest was in junior high, enlisted in the military and were scattered across America, Europe and Asia. Bess, stateside, managed their civilian interests, and helped care for two great-aunts, a dying father, her mother, and brother.

Early in the war, on a weekend pass, one brother brought home some buddies. One, Dalton Baker of Charleston, Mississippi would return to visit as often as possible. Before he left for Europe, Baker and Bess were engaged.

On December 28, 1946, Bess and Baker were married. For seventeen years theirs was a military marriage with assignments at Hickam Field, Honolulu, Hawaii, Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi, Johnson AFB, Tokyo, Japan, and Charleston AFB, Charleston, South Carolina. During the station at Charleston, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a national alert. Military dependents were advised to be on evacuation standby. Baker encouraged Bess to be ready should orders come. “We’re a military family. We stay together,” she responded.

In 1963, the Bakers retired to Frisco City where they were active in church, school and community activities. Bess worked as secretary for the local school, and Baker was city clerk.

In 1989 they moved to Ozark, Alabama. They enjoyed sharing activities with grandchildren, and the church, Bess often taught the Mary Tarver Sunday School class, a member of the Circle One, and volunteered in the church office. In 1996 Baker and Bess celebrated their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary. Baker died in 1999.

Until her health failed Bess’ hands were seldom idle. She sewed for the family, was a voracious, eclectic reader and “a bodacious good” cook. She was a kind and gently lady.

Bess is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Penny and Kent Sanders, granddaughters and family, Elizabeth, Jamieson and Jack Cantrell and Ginny Sanders, all of Elmodel, GA; daughter and son-in-law, Pat and Jack Jackson, of Ozark, grandson and wife, Ryan and Heather Jackson, of Nashville, TN, and granddaughters, Kendall Jackson and Jennifer Jackson of Birmingham, AL. Of the seven Driscoll children, Jeremiah, William, Carl, Lelland and Bess, two brothers, Vic Driscoll of Wharton, TX and Dan Driscoll of Fairhope, AL survive.

The family is grateful to Mrs. Dorothy Alls, Ms. Machelle Waker, and Mrs. Annie Miller not only for their professional care of our mother, but for the gentleness and compassion that added to her quality of life.