(Click image or here for larger photo.)
Evergreen Memorial Park, Wilson, NC
March 17, 1945 - January 23, 1978
Joseph Martin Baker of Bailey,a popular instructor at Southern Nash since it opened in 1968 died early Monday morning at Wilson Memorial Hospital.
Martin, as he was called, a diabetic and also suffered from a heart condition, died at 6 am from complications brought on by bronchiitis.
He was a business education teacher. This teaching job was his first and only teaching assignment. He also taught distributive education before teaching business education.
Martin was a popular instructor and sponsor of the Future Business Leaders of America Club and also former sponsor of the CB Club according to the school. Quoting then secretary Beck Finch "He came with the school." "He was very popular. He was just a friend to all the students. The school was his family. There will not be anyone who had the interest of students more at heart than Martin Baker."
Martin was a native of Wilson. A 1964 graduate of Fike High School and a 1968 graduate of Atlantic Christian College (now named Barton College). He also earned a Master's Degree from East Carolina University while teaching at Southern Nash. He was unmarried and lived in Bailey for about 7 years at the time of his death. He was an active member of the Bailey Baptist Church where he taught a Sunday School class for high school age students. He was survived by his mother Lina Baker of Wilson, six sisters Camilla Eason, Kaye Crisp of Macclesfield, Shelby Benson of Rocky Mount, Faye Whitley of Statonburg, Juday Garris and Marie Pittman of Wilson; three brothers Jackie and Connor Baker of Wilson, NC and Billy Baker of Tarboro.
This information about Martin is posted some 35 years years later. It comes from the Spring Hope Enterprise January 26, 1978. Also there is a "In Memory" page for Martin in the 1978 High School Year Book with a picture of Martin and few of his poems that he wrote.
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