June Marilyn Girod Baker

June Marilyn Girod Baker, 91, of West Monroe died Thursday, June 10, 2021, at Ridgecrest Community Care. June was born in the early morning on June 17, 1929, at home in Hebert, Louisiana, to the late Felix Isaiah and Beatrice Roy Girod. June was the youngest of the Girod’s eleven children.

After graduation from high school in Columbia in 1946, June moved to Monroe to work at Southern Bell Telephone Company and then in 1949 she worked at United Gas Pipeline Company. After the birth of her first child, she stayed at home to raise her children until the death of her husband in 1971. In 1973, she passed the real estate exam and became a real estate agent. By 1974, she started her own company, June Baker Realty, Inc. in West Monroe, which she owned until her retirement in 2010.

June gave her life to Jesus at the age of 12 at Bethany Baptist Church in Hebert, and was baptized at First Baptist Church, Columbia. She taught the words of Jesus to women and children during Sunday School and Vacation Bible School in the churches she attended. Vacation Bible School was her favorite to teach. She was a charter member of Cedar Crest Baptist Church, of which she was a member until her death.

She was also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, West Monroe Bowling Association, Kiroli PTA.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Hugh Frederick Baker, Sr., whom she married in August 1957. June cared for her husband, Hugh, through his lengthy battle with lung cancer until his death in March 1971.

She is survived by her daughter and three sons, Cheryl Lynn Baker Walters and husband, Bruce, William Michael “Mike” Baker, of West Monroe, Russell Allen Baker and wife, Tina, of Owensboro, KY and Hugh Frederick “Ricky” Baker, Jr. and wife, Marie, of West Monroe, and six grandchildren, Sarah Elisabeth Walters, of Ozark, MO, Jonathan Bruce Walters and wife, Cathy, of Calhoun, Katherine Elizabeth Zboril and husband, Pavel, of Owensboro, KY, Robert Allen Baker and wife, Nicole, of Murfreesboro, TN, Hugh Frederick “Trey” Baker, III, and Kindal Leigh Makoli and husband, Tony, of West Monroe; seven great grandchildren, Nora Caitlin Gill Lewis and husband, Jed, of Guatemala, Gracie Melba Gill, of Lindale, TX, Anna Juliet Walters, Ayden Jonathan Walters, of Calhoun, Layla Rose Herrera and Klara Elizabeth Zboril, of Owensboro, KY, and Kinley Sage Batby, of West Monroe; one great-great grandchild, Josephine Claire Lewis, of Guatemala; and one sister, Nannye Elizabeth “Bettye” Girod Wilks and husband, Chester, and many nieces and nephews.

June loved sports especially basketball, having played for both Columbia High School and United Gas Pipeline, and then later playing with her grandchildren in the driveway. She enjoyed spending her time bowling, gardening, traveling and loved every moment spent with her family.

Funeral services are at 1:00 P.M., Monday, June 14, 2021, at Cedar Crest Baptist Church in West Monroe, LA, with Dr. Greg Clark and Rev. Ricky Baker officiating. Interment will follow in the Church of the Redeemer Episcopal Cemetery in Oak Ridge, LA. Visitation will be from 5:00 P.M. until 7:00 P.M., Sunday, June 13, 2021, at Cedar Crest Baptist Church in West Monroe, LA.

Pallbearers will be Jonathan Walters, Robert Baker, Trey Baker, Gary Girod, Earl Baker, and Bill Baker.

Special thanks to Natalie Ward for extraordinary care given during her illness.

Expressions of sympathy may take the form of donations to Cedar Crest Baptist Church Building Fund of West Monroe or Grace Baptist Church Building Fund of Monroe.