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Jane Baker, Hazelwood and Mid-county leader, dies at 69
Loyalty and fairness impressed neighbors and officials alike -
LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
Jane Baker, one of Mid-county and East Portland’s best known and best liked community leaders, died April 26 of complications related to cancer and emphysema. She was 69.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, she and her husband Jack moved to Oregon in 1959. Her employment history included work as a forklift operator.
Her true vocation, as a neighborhood activist, began in 1981. As chronicled in a June 2001 Mid-county Memo profile by Don Weston, Baker was charter member of:
•The Hazelwood Community Group and later Hazelwood Neighborhood Association where she served as president from 1983 to 1993 and remained active in land use activity almost until her death;
•The East County Community Coordinating Committee (ECCCO), a forerunner of the East Portland District Coalition, where she was president from 1982 to 1986;
•The Mid-County Future Alternatives Committee (MCFAC), which attempted to form the new city of Columbia Ridge as an alternative to having the area annexed to the city of Portland.
Baker was in the forefront of the fight against annexation, the building of the east side light rail, and the installation of new sewer lines and the dispute over how they should be paid for. Not always victorious, she usually managed to affect a better result than would have occurred had she not weighed in.
“Jane worked for our community for so many years that many people who are active now aren’t even aware of how much she accomplished,” former Hazelwood and East Portland District Coalition chair Kay Collier says.
Although her activities and accomplishments were impressive enough, friends contacted by the Memo and at a memorial service at Cherry Park School best remembered her qualities as a person.
They remembered her as a fierce fighter for her causes, but also as a gracious one. “She didn’t see the city of Portland as monolithic,” Bonny McKnight recalls. “She might well argue with you, but she let you know it wasn’t personal.”
Former Multnomah County planner Adrienne Brockman put it this way: “She deals with issues rather than personalities, she’s informed rather than demeaning to people, and she’s very gracious.”
Richard Bixby, now executive director of the East Portland Neighborhood Office and once in effect an employee of Baker’s when the office was run by a coalition, says, “She was a joy to deal with. She was very straightforward, she always let you know what she was feeling, but she was always respectful of the person. She never made you feel you were attacked personally.”
For such reasons, she was often accorded seats on city project advisory committees, and was awarded the Spirit of Portland award in 1988. Commissioner Jim Francesconi and former commissioner Sharron Kelley were among those who attended her memorial, while County chair Diane Linn and mayor Vera Katz sent their regrets. Recounting Katz’s words of praise, McKnight said, “Her next door neighbor would say exactly the same thing.”
Baker wasn’t only interested in large, important projects, nor did she require a title to help out. “She was always the one who organized the fundraising projects,” former Hazelwood chair Sharon Owen says. “Anything that needed to be done, Jane was out there doing it. Last year, when she couldn’t get out, she was on the phone. She kept Hazelwood’s issues before the city all the time. When someone asked us, ‘Can you help with this?’ Jane was usually the one who did it. That’s what makes a neighborhood association work, the constant follow-up on things.”
“She stayed on top of everything, absolutely everything,” Collier says. “For me, Jane WAS Hazelwood.”
Owen and others, not all of them from Hazelwood, said that Baker was an important mentor to them First and foremost, however, she was a friend. “As a friend, she defined the word friendship,” McKnight says.
“She was passionate about issues,” Owen says. “She got mad at me if I didn’t agree with her, but it didn’t affect her friendship. Anything I did was okay. If you were her friend, she sent you cards, notes and presents. She was the most loyal friend I ever had.”
At the service, Owen said she had “sat at Jane’s dining room table so many times it should have my name on it.” If it didn’t, perhaps it was because Owen had plenty of company there.
“I have drunk hundreds of cups of coffee at her dining room table,” Collier says. “We hashed over neighborhood problems, personal problems, you name it. She always opened her door to everyone.”
Nor was she only a shoulder to cry on. Friends characterized her sense of humor as “spicy,” or “risqué.” She was part of a circle that met weekly at Lyon’s Restaurant, and one former member speculates that their boisterousness may have contributed to the place’s closure.
Baker and former Wilkes chair Alice Blatt were both crossword puzzle addicts, and had a friendly but fierce rivalry with regard to the New York Times Sunday puzzle. Once Blatt refused to answer her phone at 7 a.m., alarming her children. “I was afraid it would be Jane telling me she’d finished the puzzle - and read the rest of the paper,” she said.
Her son Michael and his former playmates remember that during his school athletic career she was the ultimate baseball mom, telling the umpire what she thought of his call in a voice the whole park could hear.
Collier remembers her prized teddy bear collection, and the annual ritual of decorating a Christmas tree on which “every ornament meant something special.” She gave a stuffed German Shepherd to East Precinct as a gift.
It was by no means her only such gift. Near the end her passion was the Midland Library Park. She astonished park planner David Yamashita by contributing $1,000 to the park’s development. She also solicited other donations from friends and associates, notably developer Dick Cooley.
Through her family, friends, the Parks Bureau and the East Portland Neighborhood Office, Jane’s Park Fund has been established to complete work on the park, using David Douglas School District student volunteers. Contributions can be made to Jane’s Park Fund, care of the East Portland Neighborhood Office, 735 S.E. 106th Ave., Portland, 97216. There is also a move afoot to rename the place Jane Baker Park.
Loyalty and fairness impressed neighbors and officials alike -
LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
 |
| Jane Baker |
Jane Baker, one of Mid-county and East Portland’s best known and best liked community leaders, died April 26 of complications related to cancer and emphysema. She was 69.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, she and her husband Jack moved to Oregon in 1959. Her employment history included work as a forklift operator.
Her true vocation, as a neighborhood activist, began in 1981. As chronicled in a June 2001 Mid-county Memo profile by Don Weston, Baker was charter member of:
•The Hazelwood Community Group and later Hazelwood Neighborhood Association where she served as president from 1983 to 1993 and remained active in land use activity almost until her death;
•The East County Community Coordinating Committee (ECCCO), a forerunner of the East Portland District Coalition, where she was president from 1982 to 1986;
•The Mid-County Future Alternatives Committee (MCFAC), which attempted to form the new city of Columbia Ridge as an alternative to having the area annexed to the city of Portland.
Baker was in the forefront of the fight against annexation, the building of the east side light rail, and the installation of new sewer lines and the dispute over how they should be paid for. Not always victorious, she usually managed to affect a better result than would have occurred had she not weighed in.
“Jane worked for our community for so many years that many people who are active now aren’t even aware of how much she accomplished,” former Hazelwood and East Portland District Coalition chair Kay Collier says.
Although her activities and accomplishments were impressive enough, friends contacted by the Memo and at a memorial service at Cherry Park School best remembered her qualities as a person.
They remembered her as a fierce fighter for her causes, but also as a gracious one. “She didn’t see the city of Portland as monolithic,” Bonny McKnight recalls. “She might well argue with you, but she let you know it wasn’t personal.”
Former Multnomah County planner Adrienne Brockman put it this way: “She deals with issues rather than personalities, she’s informed rather than demeaning to people, and she’s very gracious.”
Richard Bixby, now executive director of the East Portland Neighborhood Office and once in effect an employee of Baker’s when the office was run by a coalition, says, “She was a joy to deal with. She was very straightforward, she always let you know what she was feeling, but she was always respectful of the person. She never made you feel you were attacked personally.”
For such reasons, she was often accorded seats on city project advisory committees, and was awarded the Spirit of Portland award in 1988. Commissioner Jim Francesconi and former commissioner Sharron Kelley were among those who attended her memorial, while County chair Diane Linn and mayor Vera Katz sent their regrets. Recounting Katz’s words of praise, McKnight said, “Her next door neighbor would say exactly the same thing.”
Baker wasn’t only interested in large, important projects, nor did she require a title to help out. “She was always the one who organized the fundraising projects,” former Hazelwood chair Sharon Owen says. “Anything that needed to be done, Jane was out there doing it. Last year, when she couldn’t get out, she was on the phone. She kept Hazelwood’s issues before the city all the time. When someone asked us, ‘Can you help with this?’ Jane was usually the one who did it. That’s what makes a neighborhood association work, the constant follow-up on things.”
“She stayed on top of everything, absolutely everything,” Collier says. “For me, Jane WAS Hazelwood.”
Owen and others, not all of them from Hazelwood, said that Baker was an important mentor to them First and foremost, however, she was a friend. “As a friend, she defined the word friendship,” McKnight says.
“She was passionate about issues,” Owen says. “She got mad at me if I didn’t agree with her, but it didn’t affect her friendship. Anything I did was okay. If you were her friend, she sent you cards, notes and presents. She was the most loyal friend I ever had.”
At the service, Owen said she had “sat at Jane’s dining room table so many times it should have my name on it.” If it didn’t, perhaps it was because Owen had plenty of company there.
“I have drunk hundreds of cups of coffee at her dining room table,” Collier says. “We hashed over neighborhood problems, personal problems, you name it. She always opened her door to everyone.”
Nor was she only a shoulder to cry on. Friends characterized her sense of humor as “spicy,” or “risqué.” She was part of a circle that met weekly at Lyon’s Restaurant, and one former member speculates that their boisterousness may have contributed to the place’s closure.
Baker and former Wilkes chair Alice Blatt were both crossword puzzle addicts, and had a friendly but fierce rivalry with regard to the New York Times Sunday puzzle. Once Blatt refused to answer her phone at 7 a.m., alarming her children. “I was afraid it would be Jane telling me she’d finished the puzzle - and read the rest of the paper,” she said.
Her son Michael and his former playmates remember that during his school athletic career she was the ultimate baseball mom, telling the umpire what she thought of his call in a voice the whole park could hear.
Collier remembers her prized teddy bear collection, and the annual ritual of decorating a Christmas tree on which “every ornament meant something special.” She gave a stuffed German Shepherd to East Precinct as a gift.
It was by no means her only such gift. Near the end her passion was the Midland Library Park. She astonished park planner David Yamashita by contributing $1,000 to the park’s development. She also solicited other donations from friends and associates, notably developer Dick Cooley.
Through her family, friends, the Parks Bureau and the East Portland Neighborhood Office, Jane’s Park Fund has been established to complete work on the park, using David Douglas School District student volunteers. Contributions can be made to Jane’s Park Fund, care of the East Portland Neighborhood Office, 735 S.E. 106th Ave., Portland, 97216. There is also a move afoot to rename the place Jane Baker Park.
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