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343  Epilogue The Legacy Nearly one thousand relatives, friends, partners, business associates, and citizens “from every walk of life” crowded into The Oaks or filled the green lawns surrounding the house when Dr. Charles L. King, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, began his simple service for Captain James A. Baker at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 3, 1941. Respectful of Baker’s request, Dr. King read a Bible chapter and led the mourners in a song and prayer.1 Standing by the casket covered with brilliant red roses were his three sons, Jim, Browne, and Malcolm, his two daughters, Alice and Ruth, his sisters Minnie Parish of Huntsville and Anna B. Thompson of Ft. Worth, and his ten grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Eight nephews—Nettie’s sons Frank, Bruce, and Baker Duncan, Minnie’s son Alvis Parish, Anna B.’s sons George and Beverly Thompson, and Alice’s nephews Frank Coates and Ed Stewart—bore the casket from the house. Six carloads of flowers and eleven family cars led a procession that was two miles long and required six police officers to control traffic. When the mourners reached Glenwood Cemetery they found the family plot already covered with flowers. There beside his wife and his son, and with his brother Robert (1867–1939) and his cousin Andrew Gabriel (1864–1924) nearby, mourners laid this civic icon and family patriarchtorest .Hisfamilylaterplacedamarkerthatread:“Citizen,lawyer, husband and father, friend, the record is well written and on memory’s altar will ever glow a wealth of love and affection for one who through life was loyal to every trust, and measured up to the full stature of man.”2 book TAM Kirkland.indb 343 book TAM Kirkland.indb 343 5/30/12 2:48 PM 5/30/12 2:48 PM Epilogue  344 Captain Baker signed his last testament on June 14, 1941, and named hissonsJimandBrowneexecutors;inhisfinalwrittenwords,heurgedall his children to cooperate “with each other in that spirit of loyalty and affection which should always characterize the relations between brothers and sisters.” His executors filed the document for probate in mid-August, and Houstonians learned Captain Baker had bequeathed his home to Rice Institute. If the Institute did not turn The Oaks into a residence for its president, then Baker requested that the trustees sell the property and endow the Jas. A. Baker and Alice Graham Baker Bequest. Baker’s will further stipulated that the trustees use the bequest’s income for student scholarships or fellowships and for faculty salaries. The remainder of the estate, valued in December 1941 at $1.6 million, was divided evenly among Baker’s five children after his executors had funded small memorials to each of his domestic employees, thoughtful gifts to his sisters, and modest trusts for each child and grandchild.3 The Institute trustees preferred Captain Baker’s second option, sold The Oaks to the M. D. Anderson Foundation for $62,500 on May 16, 1942, and established the Baker bequest. The Foundation launchedHouston’s first cancer research hospital in the estate’s buildings.4 Friends, associates, and those whose lives Captain Baker had touched realized the magnitude of their loss. With “profound wisdom and unfailing judgment,” Baker had labored tirelessly for Houston “during the city’s most fruitful period of expansion, toward the perfection of the city,” whose fortunes he had linked with his own.5 Remembered as “kindly in his nature, democratic in his manner,” many agreed “no other citizen” was held in “deeper respect. The closing of his rich career of service and leadership, after a period of three score years, leaves a vacancy in the life of this community that will not soon be filled.”6 An editorial writer praised the Captain’s forceful character and powerful influence; Houston, he believed, “would never have been the city it is without him, and it probably will never outgrow his influence.”7 The Captain’s children sent telegrams, wrote notes, and placed telephone calls to dozens of friends. For two weeks they kept a list of visitors who called at The Oaks to comfort the family, and three volumes contain the stream of letters from mourners, who spoke often of the dead man’s generosity, kindliness, and consideration for others. Alvis Parish told his cousin Alice, “Uncle Jimmie was my and Mother’s constant book TAM Kirkland.indb 344 book TAM Kirkland.indb 344 5/30/12 2:48 PM 5/30/12 2:48 PM [3.133.160.156] Project...

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