Jessie Louise Baker

Jessie Louise Westerhouse Baker, of Birmingham, AL, passed away August 26, 2016, in Tallahassee, FL, after a brief illness. Jessie Lou, known to many as Jake, was born October 18, 1921, to Louis Martin Westerhouse and Jessie Gertrude Johnson Westerhouse, in Fort Scott, KS, where her father worked as a mechanic for the Frisco Railroad. In 1925, the family moved from Thayer, MO, to Birmingham, AL, where her father was General Foreman of the Frisco Mechanical Department. Jake was a graduate of Birmingham’s Phillips High School and Birmingham-Southern College (1945). While in high school, she was a member of the Forbes Music Store’s Accordion Band, which played all around the Southeast, including for President Franklin Roosevelt at Warm Springs, GA. In the accordion band, she met Harry Turner Baker, with whom, among others, she corresponded during World War II as Harry served in the Army Air Corps in North Africa. After the War, Harry courted Jake, and they were married on October 30, 1946.

Jake worked throughout her life, mostly in administrative capacities, at American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO), First Baptist Church Birmingham (where she was a member), and finally at Woodward Iron Company (later Koppers, Inc.), from which she retired in 1985 after more than 20 years of service. In 1970, she was a founding member of Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, where she served in several capacities, and was an active member well into her 90s.

She was predeceased by her parents and husband, and a brother, Robert Louis Westerhouse, who died in childhood. She is survived by a brother, Leon Martin Westerhouse (Patsy) of Birmingham, and three sons – Robert Louis Baker (Susan) of Germantown, TN; Harry Carlyle Baker (Diane) of Tallahassee, FL; and Michael Turner Baker (Suzy) of Saint Marys, GA; as well as nine grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Interment will be in a private ceremony at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham. A memorial service will be held on September 15, 2016, at 1:30 PM, at Baptist Church of the Covenant. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Building Fund, Baptist Church of the Covenant, 2117 University Blvd, Birmingham, AL, 35233.