Joseph Robert Baker

My father, Joseph Robert Baker, grandson of James William Baker and Fannie Ellis Baker. He was born to Frank Baker and Lizzie Fudge Baker in Tazewell County, Virginia, on January 23, 1892. The family moved to the Buckeye (Butler's Mountain in Greenbrier County, West Virginia) when Joseph Robert was 6 years old, traveling by road wagon which was drawn by a team of horses. The picture was taken in a studio in Richwood, Nicholas County, West Virginia, in 1907. Prior to this picture being taken, the diphtheria epidemic had struck his family and some younger siblings died. They are buried on Butler's Mountain in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, in the Baker family graveyard. A sister who was born after the diphtheria epidemic survives still, Garnett Baker O'Dell of Richwood, West Virginia.

Joseph Robert Baker married Nannie Whitt and they had four children: Sadie St. Clair Baker, Ellis Adrian Baker, Gladys Edna Baker, and Goldie Baker. Nannie died of pneumonia on her 30th birthday. Joseph Robert Baker then married Gertrude Ethel Llewellyn (aka Gertrude Ethel Morris) and their union produced ten children: Shirley Alifair Baker, George Herbert Baker, Vivian Hazel Baker, Alfred Dale Baker,
Walter Lee Baker, Mildred Lucille Baker, Betty Josephine Baker, Arnold Robert Baker, Dreama Gail Baker (me - born 1948), Patricia Ann Baker.

Joseph Robert ("Bob") survived having both diphtheria circa 1905 and influenza during the 1918 epidemic. He died of adverse effects of sulfa drug on October 2, 1982, being of sound mind and having read without glasses all his life.