Ramona A. Baker
(September 2010)

A member of "The Greatest Generation", Ramona was born and brought up in Lesage . There on the Ohio River in "Little Seven Mile", she went through the great depression with two brothers (Jack and Glen McFann) and two sisters (Fern McFann Maxwell and Hilda McFann Herndon). They lived on a small farm and had little if any luxuries. However, they were surrounded by a large closely-knit family and by all accounts lived a good life.
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After high school, while working as a shop girl in Huntington, she met her future husband, Firman Baker. Although it was a mixed marriage, (he was a Republican), they were married just prior to WW II. During the war, Firman served in the Merchant Marines and she worked in a defense factory. After the war, mostly with their own hands, they built a home in the country on Cox's Lane. A few years later, in search of telephone service, they moved to the city of Huntington. Here, for a while, she ran a small diner, "Ramona's Grill". After a year, she sold the grill and became a master seamstress for an interior decorator. At times she employed as many as three or four seamstresses in her business. At the same time, she was the proprietor of a small apartment house.

As her husband's career advanced, she followed him to Pittsburgh, PA, Cleveland and Columbus, OH, Chicago IL and Red Bank NJ. When her two children left home, she took up golf and claims that Sammy Snead said she could hit it "real good". First as an amateur and later as a licensed dealer, she dabbled in American antiques. She and her husband ran a booth in the large flea market in Englishtown NJ for several years.

She returned to West Virginia to care for her ailing parents (Riggs and Halsie McFann). After their death, she was widowed in 1986. After her husband's death, she moved to the Guyan Estates in Barboursville, where she had previously attended high school. She maintained her own small home that was well known for its decoration and collection of antique furniture. After she moved to Lubbock in 2005, her older sister Fern passed away and she was the last survivor of the family in her generation .

She is survived by her son, James Baker and wife Peggy of Lubbock TX, her daughter Patricia Garner of Arcadia FL, five grandchildren - Dan Garner, John Garner, Ed Baker, Margaret Baker, and Barbara George, and six great grandchildren. She was especially close to two nephews, Bob Maxwell and Don Herndon, who provided her great comfort and assistance in her elder years.