'Grandma,' nearly 99, lives in the moment
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By Kay Luna | Sunday, May 11, 2008 |
Louise Baker, who will be 99 on May 15, puts her raincoat on with the help of her grandson, Bobby Stansberry, at her home. Baker makes it a point to get out of the house and stay active every day. (Elisa Petersen/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo
VIDEO: Mom almost as old as Mother's Day
She remembers the past but don't expect her to dwell on it for long. At the…
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She remembers the past but don’t expect her to dwell on it for long.
Louise Baker, who is nearly 99 years old, will tell you she prefers to live in the moment and make new memories instead.
Sitting on her favorite barstool at Mary’s on 2nd in downtown Davenport, a tavern in the Rainbow District that is run by her grandson, Bobby Stansberry, the little lady — who weighs far less than 100 pounds soaking wet and stands just 4 feet 8 inches tall — would rather talk about her love of dancing, partying and having fun.
“Oh, don’t you say anything about me,” she yells across the bar, pretending to scowl at another customer.
Then she winks.
She sips her drink — a whiskey and water — and talks about how much she wishes her old legs would allow her to dance again. Oh, how she and her late husband, Luther, loved to dance.
“You know, the night before I had my oldest, we went dancing,” she says. “We did the Charleston, me and that big belly.”
That baby, son Bob Baker, is now 80 years old and lives in Davenport. He still visits her every week.
Their other son, Bill Baker, died several years ago of cancer. Their daughter, Ora Elizabeth Baker Stansberry, died 21 years ago from complications of a health problem. Baker’s husband, whom she married when she was about 18, died in 1980.
Despite her age, she still lives alone in their tidy Davenport home of 50 years, where she recalls many happy family parties over the years. She still does her own cooking, cleaning and curtain-hanging (standing on a ladder to do so), climbs the steep stairs to the upper level of the home and does crafts — all while waiting for her next chance to get out of the house.
She still is known for visiting the Friendly House and remains a member of the Moose Lodge and Eagles Club, where she says she’s in the Hall of Fame. Many people there call her “Ma,” she says.
At the bar, everyone calls her “Grandma,” though, and “she really fits that role,” says her granddaughter, JoAnn Novitske, 44, of Davenport.
“She really kind of mothers everyone,” Novitske says. “I really can’t tell you how she’s able to make everyone feel so special.”
Novitske was 26 when her mother, Ora, died. Her grandmother, in her late 70s at the time, stepped right in as “mother” to her and her siblings, Debbie and Bobby.
“If I had any questions about child-rearing or recipes or how do I do this, she just completely took over that role,” Novitske says. “I’m not so sure if us siblings would have made it without her.”
Her grandmother is a wonderful great-grandmother, Novitske adds. No matter what happens, Baker always remembers to send birthday cards, valentines and little baskets of goodies to the kids, she says.
Baker’s life has not been easy. Her mother, Hannah, died when Baker was just 19 years old. Her father died two years later when he was struck by a bus in Davenport, she says.
Several of her cousins lived to be 100 years or older, but all of her siblings died a long time ago from various health problems. She has fought off various illnesses over the years herself.
She never had a lot of money as a kid growing up in Davenport, nor as a wife and mother. But she always made do. She still does.
“I’m jolly, ain’t I?” Baker says with a laugh. “I’m always laughing all the time. We always have fun.”
Her grandson, Bobby, snickers from his nearby seat where he’s smoking a cigarette. He calls her “the light of my life.”
“She goes and goes,” he says. “She never stops.”
On her granddaughter’s 40th birthday a few years ago, Baker went out drinking with the group until 2 a.m. without blinking an eye.
She thinks that eating a good supper — complete with meat, a vegetable and a dessert — every night has led to her long life.
“I’ve had a good life, too,” she adds.
The conversation then steers back to Baker’s mother, Hannah.
“Oh, yeah, she was good-hearted,” Baker says. “She never swore. My dad said if you heard her say ‘Damn it,’ you’d better get going because she was mad.”
At the bar, Pete Bednarczyk takes a seat next to “Grandma” and smiles at her.
“Hey, you look pretty good for an old lady,” he says.
She promptly leans over and hits him in the arm.
“I like to pick on her,” he says. “And I love her stories.”
She’s like a history book, bartender Dawn Hunter of Rock Island says. Baker can tell stories about where certain buildings used to stand, and who lived where, in Davenport when she was younger.
“Yeah, I was a good girl,” Baker chimes in, talking loudly over the noise in the bar.
With a deadpan expression, the bartender shoots back, “When you were sleepin’.”
“Grandma” throws back her head and laughs.
Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com.
Celebrate ‘Grandma’
You can wish lifelong Davenport resident Louise Baker a happy 99th birthday at a party for her that will be hosted by her grandchildren.
The party will be 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at Mary’s on 2nd, 832 W. 2nd St., in downtown Davenport, where regulars know her simply as “Grandma.”
Baker is the mother of three children, including sons Robert Baker of Davenport and the late Bill Baker, and one daughter, the late Ora Elizabeth Baker Stansberry. She has five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
History of Mother’s Day
“Mother’s Day is in honor of the best mother who ever lived — the mother of your heart.”
— Anna Jarvis
Mother’s Day in the United States was founded 100 years ago by Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) to celebrate and show appreciation for her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis (1832-1905), whom she believed to be an exceptional teacher, lecturer, community activist and mother.
As part of her work, the elder Jarvis organized Mother Work Day clubs to fight poor health and sanitary conditions, which killed many children in the 19th century.
Two years after her death at the age of 72, her daughter began a campaign to make Mother’s Day an official American holiday. In 1908, she asked a minister at her church in West Virginia to give a sermon in her mother’s memory, and many consider that the first unofficial Mother’s Day.
However, it wasn’t until 1914 that Congress passed a joint resolution, later signed by President Woodrow Wilson, establishing Mother’s Day as an official holiday.
According to the Library of Congress, the official flower of Mother’s Day is the white carnation, which was the elder Jarvis’ favorite flower. Carnations were distributed at the first commemoration honoring her a century ago.
Now, pink carnations customarily represent mothers who are living, while white carnations stand for those who have died.
By the numbers
--82.8 million: Estimated number of mothers in the United States in 2004.
--55: Percentage of 15- to 44-year-olds who are mothers.
--81: Percentage of women 40 to 44 years old who are mothers. In 1976, 90 percent of women in that age group were mothers.
— Source: U.S. Census Bureau
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