Baker, Rhodes S., Jr., 1912-1967

Name: Rhodes S Baker Jr
Rank: S/Sgt
Birth Date: 27 Nov 1912
Service Number: 38683294
Service Branch: Army
Unit: 3820th Ser C Unit
Enlistment Date: 27 Mar 1944
Discharge Date: 24 Jan 1946
Death Date: 25 Nov 1967
Cemetery: Hillcreast Cemetery
Cemetery Location: Dallas, Texas, USA

...2. That the property described as follows:

a. The and three hundredths (10.03) shares of $100.00 par value common capital stock of The Murray Company, Dallas, Texas, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Texas, evidenced by Certificates Numbered 483 and 185, and registered in the name of Adelgunde Luttich, which certificates are presently in the possession of Rhodes S. Baker, Jr., 3217 Martha Custis Drive, Alexandria, Virginia, together with all declared and unpaid dividends thereon, and...

BAKER, RHODES SEMMES (1874–1940).Rhodes Semmes Baker, attorney, was born to Andrew Jackson Baker and Elizabeth (Newsome) Baker at Duck Hill, Mississippi, on May 30, 1874. The family moved to Texas in 1884 and settled at San Angelo, where the elder Baker operated a hardware store and served as commissioner of the General Land Office from 1895 to 1899. Baker, while working in his father's business, educated himself in hopes of becoming an attorney. Despite the fact that he had no academic coursework, he was accepted at the University of Texas. In Austin he not only pursued legal studies but edited a number of student publications. He graduated at the top of his class in 1896, moved to Dallas, and established a law practice that immediately prospered. Three years later he married Edna Miller Rembert; they had two daughters, named Dorothy and Winifred, and one son, Rhodes Jr., who also became an attorney in Dallas.

Baker was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in April 1901 and successfully argued a number of cases. In his most famous one, Hopkins v. Baker, he convinced the justices of the legality of a state law allowing married couples to file separate tax returns, thereby reducing their tax burden. He was a member of the American Bar Association, as well as the state and local bar associations, and served at one time as president of the University of Texas Ex-Students Association. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, where he taught Bible classes for thirty-seven years, and was president, on a number of occasions, of the Young Men's Christian Association.

Baker acquired an impressive selection of paintings, including works by George Inness, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, and George Romney, and was a member and one-time president of the Dallas Art Association (see DALLAS ART INSTITUTE). This largely self-educated man maintained a great interest in higher education, as seen in his participation in the campaign that brought Southern Methodist University to Dallas and in his service on the board of trustees of Austin College, which awarded him an honorary Ph.D. in 1924. At the time of his death he was a partner in the law firm of Thompson, Knight, Baker, and Harris, chairman of the board of the Dallas Building and Loan Association, and a member of the board of directors of Republic National Bank. Baker died in Dallas on February 6, 1940.

'37 Rhodes S. Baker, Jr., holder of three SMU degrees, died in November in Houston. A graduate of North Dallas High School, he attended Princeton University and received bachelor's and master's degrees from SMU before entering law school. Upon admission to the bar he joined the Dallas firm of Thompson, Knight, Baker & Harris. After army service in World War II, he was an attorney with the tax division of the Department of Justice in Washington for several years before moving to Houston in 1951, where he practiced until his death.

Surviving are his wife; a son, Rhodes S. Baker, III, of Dallas; a daughter, Mrs. Elvis Mason of Beaumont; two sisters and four grandchildren.