Gary Lynn Baker was born in Georgia on August 18, 1949. He was the son of Virgil and Joyce Baker. He had one older brother, Ron, and a younger brother and a sister, Jim and Shirley. He was forced into the army by the draft at age 19 to fight for the US Army. He went to boot camp at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He served three years in Vietnam. He worked in the Radio Communications field. .
After the war he worked at the Chrysler Jefferson Assembly Plant in Detroit. He married Ida McClearen and had a daughter, Catherine Penelope Lynn, otherwise known as Penny. He liked to hunt and fish, thanks to his father. He had a great laugh, and a mischievous sense of humor. Gary took his own life in November 1977. He was 28 years old. .
Gary is survived today by his wife, Ida, her son Richard, and his daughter Penny. He has three grandchildren that he will never get to know, plus many nieces and nephews, including myself. He is an uncle that I never got to know, a brother that my mother never got to understand, and a father that Penny never really got the chance to love. My mother was only 13 when he died and Penny was only 3. So many lives have been affected by the death of this man, whom I"m sure was a great man, as a result of his service to this country.
He was a soldier. It has no matter if he was a soldier by choice, or a soldier by pick of the draft. He fought for our country to protect our rights and freedoms. Any soldier contributes to our society in this way. They are protecting us by fighting, or just by being enrolled in our Army, Marines, or Air Force. They are ready to go to war to protect us. They are ready to die all in the name of freedom. That is a pretty big contribution to society.
My Uncle Gary helped make our world a better place by fighting to protect the freedoms by which our country is founded. There wouldn't be a United States with out the rights that the first soldiers fought to attain.
