Joseph Shane Baker

Joseph Shane Baker was born April 29, 1968, the youngest of John and Carrie Baker's 12 children and the only one born in a hospital. He grew up in the Mt. Jordon community five miles from Moro, Arkansas. In his work life, he was a lawyer for the state charged with making negligent dads pay to support their children. But to his family and friends he was the philosopher with the booming laugh, an aversion to matching clothes that could be called outfits and a partiality to cutoff sweat pants and T-shirts stretched out at the neck. Like most of the men in his family, Shane thought it was possible to find a quote from Lonesome Dove to fit any occasion. He loved boiled pork and wouldn't touch sliced tomatoes. And he didn't hesitate to make his preferences known before a planned visit with relatives. “I want boiled hog,” he would say. In his youth, he hunted in his dad's fields along Big Creek with Philip Best, the nephew who was more like his brother. From his dad, he learned, the value of honesty, how to build fences and tend animals and the importance of a neat barn. His brother Phil, 18 years his senior, taught him how to ride horses and possibly a few things their mother would rather he hadn't. Along the way, he learned enough about carpentry to be willing to start a project on his own and he became skilled enough at cutting and installing trim that he occasionally volunteered his services. For the past 15 years, Shane was husband to Leigh Ann (or Miss Leigh Ann as he called her) and Dad to Liz, 14, Joanie, 11, and Liam, 8. As the son of older parents, he understood the value of time. As a teenager he sometimes talked about his fear and even anger that his older brothers and sisters would have more time with their parents than he would. Not surprisingly, it was lack of time with his family that weighed heavily on him for the past year and a half. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016. He died Sunday, August 27, 2017. He was 49 years old. Shane graduated from Lee High School in Marianna, Arkansas, in 1986 and attended Lyon College in Batesville on a full scholarship. He graduated college in 1990 with bachelor's degrees in history and philosophy. At Lyon College he developed a devotion to the works of C.S. Lewis particularly “Mere Christianity” through which he found a deep understanding of the love of God for man, His creation. He was offered fellowships in religion and philosophy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut but turned them down to be closer to his aging dad and instead attended UALR Bowen School of Law. His first job out of law school was with the Marianne firm Daggett, Donovan, and Perry. He stayed there four years, from 1993 until 1997 before going to work for the state. Shane was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, David and Mark, two brothers-in-law, Eddie Best and Ray Hendrix; sister-in-law, Pam Baker; nephew Marcus Loye Baker; and niece Carrie Hendrix Simpson. He is survived by his wife and children; sisters Betty Hendrix, Ida Best, Mary Hastings and husband Don, Joan McCoy and husband James, Naomi Huffer and husband Jack, Ruth Baker, and Paula Holcomb and husband Mike; brothers; John and wife Carole, Phil and wife Jackie, and nieces and nephews almost too numerous to count. Services for Mr. Baker will be held at the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Forrest City, 10:00 A.M., Wednesday, with burial in Baker Family Cemetery in Moro. Visitation will be Tuesday evening, 6:00 till 7:30 P.M. With a Rosary at 7:30 P.M. At Stevens Funeral Home in Forrest City. Stevens Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. You may log on to stevensfuneralhome.net for the on line registry.

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Joseph Shane Baker

April 29, 1968 - August 27, 2017