Friends, family step in to help after area farmer’s wife dies

MOUNT VERNON — “Tremendous” is a word heard often these days around the Dean Baker farm west of Mount Vernon.

It’s a word used to describe a wife, mother and friend who died unexpectedly. It’s a word also used to express the love and support that has come the Bakers’ way in recent days.

Kathy Baker, 59, died April 27 after a seizure that occurred while she was doing what she loved — helping out on the farm.

About a dozen friends, neighbors and relatives gathered Monday at the Baker home to help plant 240 acres of corn. Six planters with a total of 80 rows worked from 9:30 a.m. to noon to do a job that normally would have taken Dean Baker four or five days.

“It really is a big relief,” Baker said. “I surely didn’t ask them to come in here. It’s just something that they wanted to do.”

The unexpected help leaves Baker a little time to deal with so many other things on his mind.

“There are just things that need to be dealt with after 37 years of marriage,” Baker said. “I’ve got a great family to help and do all this stuff. It will all work out.”

As he watched his friends drop everything in their own lives to lend him support Monday, his eyes visibly welled with tears.

“It’s just tremendous that the people come out and support you. I told the fellas this morning that even though they are helping me, I hope I never have to return the favor. They understand when I say that. The thing of it is, it has to make these guys feel good to help. There’s a lot of people hurting.”

Kathy Baker was born and raised in Mount Vernon. She and Dean attended school together and married a few years after he returned from service in Vietnam.

“She wrote all the time I was there (Vietnam) and when I got back she was here and we started dating and after two or three years we got married. From then on it was just tremendous. She could do anything in life as far as working on a farm — she had such a multitude of talents with virtually everything. I feel very fortunate,” he said.

Considering the efforts she made to the community, it’s likely others feel the same. Kathy subbed as a teacher at the local school, worked with blood drives and after-school programs and delivered mail.

“She loved it though,” he said. “She had a great mind to do things and she used it.”

Her lifetime of efforts was a major topic of discussion Monday.

Helping out with the noon meal Monday, a daughter-in-law, Angie Baker of Kimball, considered the support the community has provided the family over the past week.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “We are so lucky to live where we live, all the help throughout this last week is just unbelievable.”

As she thought about her mother-in-law, Angie described her as “incredible.”

“I don’t know what else to say. She was the best mother-in-law and she was there for her grandkids and every time you needed anything she would come and help you,” she said.

Surrounded by those who helped plant corn Monday, Aaron Baker, one of Dean and Kathy’s three sons, marveled at the community’s efforts.

“Teachers and friends of Mom plan to come out with supper for us,” he said. “Everyone my mom has touched and all the people helping, it’s just unbelievable.”

His sister, Carisa Giblin, agreed.

“It’s overwhelming that not only our small community but the surrounding communities have come to help. They have dropped what they have going on to help Dad. It’s touching,” she said.

“My mother was a wonderful individual. In turn, if another wife or husband would have passed away Dad would be doing the same thing and so would Mom. I know that she is looking down on us right now with a big smile on her face knowing that she has no concerns and no worries now.”

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