Mary Lorraine (Rainy) Baker, 96

Mary Lorraine Baker (nee Howell) has gone to golf in the heavens. She has undoubtedly hit a hole-in-one on a Par 6 and will later host a huge BBQ with all the family and friends who have gone before her! 

She was born Aug. 12, 1929, in Salmon, Idaho, to Mary and Ralph Howell. She joined her siblings, Ralph (Sonny) and Una (Tippy), and the family moved to Wallace when her dad got a job in the mines. It was during the Depression, so jobs were highly coveted and hard to come by. In the mid-40s, they moved to Coeur d’Alene, where Lorraine worked at the Wilma and Dream theaters and graduated from Coeur d’Alene High School in 1947. She married Robert (Bob) Neal Baker on Feb. 7, 1948, and they had four children: Cathy, Karen, Patty and Doug. Bob and Lorraine had been married for 60 years at the time of his passing in 2008. They lived in Mullan Park Housing at the base of Tubbs Hill (now McEuen Park), a residential area for returning soldiers. Oldest daughter, Cathy, was born there, and those places were tiny. Bob was a carpenter and soon bought a modest fixer-upper with an actual outhouse. How the marriage survived this unfortunate situation is still a mystery and all of the girls still hate outhouses and spiders, of which there were many in that particular outhouse! They moved a few times and had their last child (a son!) before Bob built them a beautiful home on Elm Avenue.

Lorraine worked as a telephone operator for GTE, connecting calls with wires that plugged into a switchboard. She could hear every conversation going on in Coeur d’Alene, but she was a professional and kept quiet about other people’s business (mostly). She retired from GTE after 20 years and turned her attention to golf. Bob and Lorraine loved to golf! They were founding patrons of the Coeur d’Alene Public Golf Course. She played in the Ladies League and won numerous tournaments individually and in mixed doubles with Bob. They traveled and played in many tournaments every year, even hauling the clubs to Hawaii! She and Bob were also members of the Eagles and Elks and made many friends there. Lorraine was a talented seamstress and made her kids’ school clothes, dresses and Christmas jammies. She loved to read, loved the Seattle Mariners and loved watching her grandson, Max, play baseball! She was an excellent pie maker and would bake incredible apple and lemon meringue pies at the family gatherings. Her grandchildren will always reverently call them Lemon Lorraine Pies. She thoroughly enjoyed having the whole family come together for BBQs and holidays, where many of us have happy memories of sitting at the Kids Table.

Lorraine was fiercely protective and so proud of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She is survived by all of them: Cathy Harrington, Karen (Richy) Schoener, Patty Machado, and Doug (Marlene) Baker; grandchildren: Patty (Tony) France, Cory Bomar, Bobby (Juliette) Holstein, Brenda (Surya) Singh, Amy Staver, Jarrod Staver, Neal Baker, and Max Baker; great grandchildren: Nathan and Cameron France, Haiden Bomar, Chandon, Eashon, Ashton, and Deston Singh, and Michael Staver. Lorraine lived with her son and daughter-in-law for the last four years of her life, and they took excellent care of her. 

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to Canopy Village, 1350 W. Hanley Ave., Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83815, or www.canopyservices.org. 

No services will be held as she outlived all of her contemporaries! Lorraine was one tough-as-nails, cancer-surviving, hard-working lady. Say a little prayer wishing her eternal peace and embrace the 90+ year old people in your lives. They have some wonderful stories to share. And for crying out loud, bust out those clubs!

Please visit and sign Mary’s online guestbook at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com.