James Fairfowl Baker

FIRST LIEUTENANT JAMES FAIRFOWL BAKER was born in Camden on November 9, 1919 to Ralph D. and Helen Baker. He was named after his grandfather, James Fairfowl Baker, who had been in the real estate business in Camden. His father was also in the real estate business, and had done quite well for himself. James F. Baker was baptized at the First Presbyterian Church in Camden on October 24, 1920. The second of four children, James F. Baker grew up in Haddonfield NJ, where his parents owned a home at 111 Chews Landing Road. Two houses away on Mountwell Avenue lived Charles Armstrong, and James Baxter lived around the corner on Jefferson Avenue. All three would give their lives while serving in America's armed forces.

James Baker's father was a realtor, president of the Community Hotel Corporation, which controlled Camden's Walt Whitman Hotel, and was a past president of the Camden County Chamber of Commerce. James Baker was a 1937 graduate of Haddonfield High School, and of Duke University. He entered the Army in February of 1942. 

James F. Baker was killed in action while serving with the 5th Infantry Division near Metz on September 26, 1944. He was survived by his wife, Catherine Lynch Baker, formerly of Evanston IL, an infant daughter, Janis Baker, his parents, sister Helen, and a brother Stuart, who had served with a medical unit in the South Pacific. He was 24 at the time of his death which was reported in the October 23, 1944 edition of the Camden-Courier-Post.

After the war was over, James Baker was brought home to New Jersey. He was buried at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden NJ in 1949.

May 6, 1949

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