Howard Baker's sister remembered as matchmaker in 'rosebush' story | Georgiana Vines

Mary Elizabeth Baker Stuart, an art and history patron and sister of the late Howard H. Baker Jr., has died, bringing the family together for a large funeral in Abingdon, Virginia, a week ago.

Baker’s daughter, Cissy Baker, said in a phone interview Wednesday from her home in McLean, Virginia, that small health problems had become big for the 91-year-old woman when she succumbed Jan. 13 at her home in Abingdon.

“She was conscious until the day before she died, bossing people around. She was a fighter,” Cissy Baker said, laughing.

Howard and Mary were the children of U.S. Rep. Howard Baker Sr. and Dora Ladd Baker. Baker Sr. represented the 2nd Congressional District from 1951-64, and the congressman and his family had homes in Knoxville and Huntsville, Tennessee. Baker Jr. eventually became a U.S. senator, presidential chief of staff and U.S. ambassador to Japan. He established the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee.

“When his mother died, he (Howard Jr.) was 8. Aunt Mary was 2. He protected her with honor. He was the world to her. Grandfather remarried (to Irene Bailey Baker), she was not their mother. They had a little pact and he protected her like a cub,” Cissy Baker said.

Cissy Baker is a retired TV news producer who now counsels women addicted to drugs and alcohol. She said even up to this past weekend when her aunt’s funeral was held that the story of how her parents met through the aunt was “shared.”

The first account in the Knoxville News Sentinel was in 1967. It’s called the “rosebush” story.

Mary Baker and Joy Dirksen, Cissy’s mother, who was the daughter of Republican Minority Leader U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Louella Dirksen, each represented their native states in the 1951 Cherry Blossom Festival. “They were Cherry Blossom princesses together,” Cissy Baker said.

“Mom was a mischief maker,” she said. The two women were at a wedding in Johnson City in 1951 when Joy Dirksen offered Mary Baker a cigar. “They hid in a rose bush. Dad found them,” Cissy Baker said.

The story goes that Howard Baker pushed Joy Dirksen into the rosebush because he was annoyed. He later visited her and apologized. Joy Dirksen used to say it was a weekend later but Howard Baker said it was six weekends, according to the News Sentinel story published May 7, 1967.

“They married eight months later,” Cissy Baker said.

Cissy Baker said her aunt and her first husband, William C. Wampler, had a daughter, Barbara, with whom she was close, with two days’ difference in their age. The Wamplers lived in Bristol but often went to Huntsville, Tennessee, where Howard and Joy Baker lived.

“She was my godmother. Every time she’d see me, she’d say, ‘Hello, darling.’ When I walked into her bedroom on Sunday (after she died), I could just hear her saying that. I’ll miss that the most,” Cissy Baker said.

William Wampler was elected to Congress as a Republican in Virginia in 1967, the same year Howard Baker Jr. was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican in Tennessee, and both families moved to Washington, D.C.

“We all lived about 10 minutes apart. Aunt Mary would come over for dinner and bring the kids, we’d go over there,” Cissy Baker said.

Mary Elizabeth Baker Stuart was reared in Huntsville, Tennessee, in Scott County after her dad and Irene Baker moved there. (Most of the county is presently in the 3rd Congressional District.) She graduated from Washington Seminary School, now Westminster School in Atlanta, and then attended UT.

After she and Wampler divorced, she married the late G.R.C. Stuart and moved to Abingdon, where she was on the founding board of the William King Museum of Art. She also was a member of the Washington County Historical Society, for which she chaired tours of historic homes. The official obituary says she hosted countless parties and house and garden tours at the antebellum Preston/Stuart home, “The Bank.” A portion of the building used to be a commercial bank.

Besides the daughter, Barbara Wampler Walling, she leaves a son, William C. Wampler Jr., both of Bristol, Virginia. Among the survivors is a sister, Beverly Baker Patestides, Leesburg, Florida., the child of Baker Sr. and Irene Bailey Baker; and Howard Baker Jr.’s second wife, Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Burdick, Kansas, a former U.S. senator from that state.

The funeral was Monday, Jan. 16, at Singing Spring Presbyterian Church in Abington.“She (Aunt Mary) was one of the sweetest, nicest women I ever met,” Cissy Baker said.

Howard Baker Jr. died at age 88 in 2014 in Huntsville. Joy Dirksen Baker died at age 64 in 1993.

∎ POSSIBLE ABORTION LAW CHANGE: Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, said Friday he will take on more “heavy lifting” in proposing legislation that would eliminate provisions in Tennessee’s Human Life Protection Act that subject doctors to criminal penalties and fines for performing an abortion on a mother facing life-threatening issues.

Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, and Senate GOP caucus chair, earlier said he would take this legislation on but Briggs, a retired cardiologist, said he now will work on the legislation in Yager’s place with other members of the Senate leadership.

Briggs said he will seek revision to the “trigger ban” that took effect Aug. 25 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that provided a right to an abortion in most instances.

Briggs said revisions need to be made to consider the life or health of the mother, or based on rape, incest and severe fetal anomalies. “What I’m discussing is terminating a pregnancy out of medical necessity,” he said. He said rape would be addressed separately and with perimeters.

He said a statewide poll and one in his district that he financed during his recent successful campaign for reelection show 80% of those polled support making changes in Tennessee’s law.

∎ UPDATE ON SCHOOL CHARTERS: Former state Rep. Eddie Smith, a Knoxville Republican, is a member of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, which will have a quarterly meeting Friday, Jan. 27, after committee meetings Thursday, Jan. 26, in Nashville.

Smith said the commission has been busy since being set up for the 2021-22 academic year in establishing procedures and hiring Tess Stovall as executive director. Stovall was a hearing officer for the state Board of Education when that agency handled charter schools.

Current Tennessee law requires charter schools to get approval from the local school board and, if turned down, apply to the commission to overturn the decision. There are bills before the legislature that would allow charter schools to apply directly to the state for approval.

Hayden Pendergrass, who started last week as director of external affairs for the commission, said that in 2021-22, 16 appeals were filed, five approved by the commission, seven upheld the decision of the local school board and four withdrew the appeals after being denied.

“The commission falls under the ‘Sunshine Law,’ “ Smith said, meaning the meetings are open to the public. Smith served on the House Education Administration and Planning Subcommittee for two years and was vice chair.

Other East Tennessee representatives on the commission are Tom Griscom of Chattanooga, former publisher of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, who is commission chairman, and Alan Levine of Washington County, president/CEO of Ballad Health. Levine has just been reappointed to a five-year term by Gov. Bill Lee, subject to confirmation of the legislature.

∎ OPEN FORUM: The public is invited to a legislative forum with the Knox County delegation at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, in the East Tennessee History Center. The event is sponsored by the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Knoxville/Knox County League of Women Voters. Jesse Mayshark, an ETSPJ board member and co-founder of Compass Knox, will be moderator.

Coffee and breakfast bagels and pastries will be available at 8:30 a.m. and are free while they last. Wearing of masks is optional.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Georgiana Vines: Howard Baker's sister remembered as matchmaker