Coralie Baker

Coralie Hicks Baker was born during the Great Depression on a farm near Billings, Oklahoma in Noble County on June 22, 1932 and died March 6, 2023. She was the daughter of Elmer Edwin and Mary Elizabeth Knepper Hicks.

Coralie was left an orphan at the age of eight when her mother died and her father joined the Merchant Marines in World War II. She lived with neighbors and attended Pleasant Valley, a one-room schoolhouse.

In 1946, Coralie moved to Perry, Oklahoma to live with her aunt, Ada Wiehe. She attended Perry High School where she was Wrestling Queen and a member of the National Honor Society.

Upon graduation in 1950, Coralie won a scholarship and attended Oklahoma College for Women, Chickasha, Oklahoma, where she was a member of the Eche Sa Sorority. In 1952, she was accepted into the University of Oklahoma School of Nursing where she was a member of the Delta Alpha Scholastic Sorority. She graduated in 1955 and was employed by University Hospital, OKC, where she was chosen as a member of the operating team pioneering open heart surgery with the first heart-lung machine in Oklahoma.

In 1958, Coralie married a medical student, Kermit Baker of Poteau, Oklahoma. In 1960 she moved with him to University of Kansas for his internship; in l961, to University of Missouri for his surgical residency; in 1965 to McConnell Air Force Base, Wichita, Kansas for his military duty. In 1967, they and their five daughters made their home in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he established his general surgery practice and she was a homemaker.

Coralie was very active in the Catholic church, Catholic schools, Theresians, public schools, band, Girl Scouts, softball teams, Red Cross blood bank, YWCA, Republican Party, medical wives, community concerts, Hospice, and pro-life. She loved gardening, reading, writing poetry, prose and letters-to-the-editor.  Above all, she loved helping her daughters with the birth and care of her fourteen grandchildren.

In 1998, Coralie left her home and community to care for her daughter and grandchildren in Florida.

Coralie is survived by her daughter Kathy and husband, Michael Davis, their children: Rachael, Rebecca and Nicholas; her grandsons, Joshua and J.B. Bird, her daughter Susan McAuliff and children: Matthew, Christopher, Erin, John, Peter, Elizabeth, Meghan, and Michael; her daughter Jennifer Baker and her daughter Laura Stanton and son, Liam and 15 great grandchildren.

Requiem Mass was offered by Fr. Tejada at St. Timothy's Catholic Church in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, March 11, 2023. The long journey will end when her body is laid to rest with her mother in the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Cemetery in Perry, Oklahoma. "Apart in life; together in death."

Condolences may be sent to Kathy Davis, 3306 Litchfield Dr., San Antonio, TX 78230.