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While at Baker, I joined all kinds of clubs, working toward membership in the National Honor Society. I remember Saturday morning service days with Beta-Tri-Hi-Y, crazy things like Sadie Hawkins Day, Dress Up Day, Student Council election speeches and skits. (Remember, “It’s spring and the Sap is running”?), and of course, Baker’s wonderful dramatic productions. Cheering at pep rallies, as part of the Lion Backers and Dandy Lions, as well as the games themselves, were great fun. The camaraderie during Dandy Lion practices, and the excitement of marching into a football stadium on Friday night will remain with me always. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a summer participating in the Governor’s Honor Program after my sophomore year. The transition to college-level work was eased by the teachers at Baker who helped me become a better writer, and who encouraged us to think critically.
I moved with my family to St. Louis the day after graduation, and in the fall, I began attending Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. In 1971, I graduated with a degree in English and teaching credentials. Finding a tight job market for humanities teachers, I accepted a position with the Social Security Administration in St. Louis. I met my husband, Dave, through work, while living in Minnesota, and, we were married in 1982. Within two months, work sent us to Chicago, and three years later, I left the government to attend Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, earning my degree and license in 1988. I worked in a small law firm for two years until a job change for Dave took us to Lafayette, Indiana, home of his alma mater, Purdue University. I seized an opportunity to work as a staff attorney at Social Security’s hearing office in Indianapolis, where I could use prior job expertise and have a more reasonable work life. We moved to a small community west of Indianapolis when my husband became the manager of Social Security’s westside branch office. Just as my work situation was becoming less satisfying, the government began offering early retirement as a means to shrink the federal workforce – an offer I couldn’t resist. This hiatus has enabled me to be more involved in volunteer activities through my church, advocate sensible development policies before our local government officials, do some free lance appellate work, and spend more time with my family in Anniston, Alabama, especially during my dad’s final illness this past winter.
Finding the @ Baker website has provided contact with people and events I thought I had lost; thank you to the folks who made it possible.
July, 2003
Contact information for Linda Baker Lions only
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