Arva Baker

OAKLAND --  Arva M. (Wotring) Baker, 94, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019 at the Oakland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.  Born in her beloved Aurora, West Virginia, on Jan. 25, 1925, Arva was the fifth child of Emory and Nina (Evans) Wotring.  She is survived by daughter Constance Jacoby and husband Fred, Oakland; daughter Michelle Harris and husband Steve, Chester, VA; grandsons Jaime Jacoby, Missoula, MT, Eric (Maria) Jacoby-Bravo, Oakland, and Alex Harris, Chester, VA; four great-grandchildren: Collins and Lucas Jacoby-Bravo, Oakland, and Alex and Apollo Harris, Chester, VA; and numerous nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by loving husband Stanley (Feb. 19, 2019); daughter Nancy Baker; and four siblings: Ardith, Edith, Evelyn, and Eldred.  Arva loved telling stories from her childhood in Aurora, starting with her birth, when the January snow was so deep, the doctor’s horse had trouble getting up the farm lane, across from Cathedral Park. She really did walk a mile, with big sister Evelyn, to the one-room Brookside Elementary School.  On a family vacation, her brother Eldred mimicked the Aberdeen road sign, calling his sister, “Arvadeen.” Nieces and nephews still call her Deenie.  In high school, Arva was voted a Preston County Buckwheat Festival Princess. She loved the study of Latin and was a high jump champion.  After graduation, she worked as a waitress at the Green Palm on the corner of Oak and Third streets in Oakland, living above the restaurant. She also worked for the Feld family, greeting customers at the HP Store in Oakland. Arva’s father knew Charlie Baker, a successful dairy farmer, and when Charlie’s son Stanley wrote Arva a letter, asking for a date, Arva’s father asked her to accompany him in the Plymouth to Oakland: “I thought it was odd,” said Arva, “but soon into the drive he suggested that I answer that letter.”  A courtship through letters led to a New Year’s Eve date to see a movie in Thomas, WV. Stanley and Arva were married in the Maple Springs Church on August 8, 1948. While building their red brick house on a corner of the Baker’s dairy farm, the newlyweds lived in Loch Lynn, MD, where Arva worked in the local pea cannery, summoned by a whistle each day the harvest came in.  Arva spent the next 70 years as a homemaker on Grassy Acres, raising three daughters; growing a garden and canning; sewing, quilting, and embroidering; writing informative letters in her beautiful penmanship; and looking after her hard-laboring husband.  She kept a scrapbook of family events and collected mementos from the 30 states and Canada where the family traveled. She loved cats, picnics, playing piano, Sunday drives to a home-cooking restaurant, and summer flowers in the yard.  She and Stanley were award-winning members of Farming For Better Living and members of the Loch Lynn Elementary School PTA. She also volunteered in the Woman’s Auxillary at Garrett Memorial Hospital and was active in the Homemaker’s Club.  In their retirement from farming, Arva and Stanley took their Sunday drive every day of the week.  Arva’s family expressed their thanks to the ONRC staff and Dr. Miller for their kindness toward Arva, and Stanley, who passed away earlier this year. Arva and her family worshiped at the Mountain Lake Park Bethel Methodist Church. Friends will be received at the C & S Fredlock Funeral Home, P.A., 21 N 2nd St., Oakland on Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 10-11:30 AM at which time a funeral service will be held.  Interment will be at the Aurora (WV) Cemetery.