SALLIE LAVERNA (PETTIT) BAKER
(September 8, 1876 - October 14, 1931)

Sallie Laverna (Pettit) Baker/John Wesley & Etha Lucinda (McMillon) Pettit/Silas Pettit & Mary Ann Pettit/William M. McMillon and Lucinda (McDaniel) McMillon

(((((The old picture of the Pettit family was taken in 1893 in Wills Point, Van Zandt County, TX. Those pictured were: L-R; #1 Sallie (Pettit) Baker, #2 John Wesley Pettit, #3 Hiram Pettit, #4 Robert Scott Pettit, #5 Etha Lucinda (McMillon) Pettit, #6 Alvis Pettit, #7 May (Pettit) Patterson, #8 Fanny (Pettit) Price & #9 Nannie (Pettit) Gilbert. If you enlarge and look closely, you can see numbers on the picture. It was taken in front of the Pettit homeplace, N. of town which is now covered over by a lake. John Wesley Pettit's children, Ben, Maggie, Mary Susan, Ollie, James R. & John H. are not pictured. Maggie, James R. & John H. died very, very young. Ben, Mary Suzi and Ollie would have already left home.)))))

Sallie Laverna (Pettit) Baker married Daniel Arthur Baker September 12, 1893 in Wills Point, Van Zandt County, TX, by Bro. Henry Beck.

They had eight (8) children and they were: Ola Myrtle (Baker) Brassfield, Christine Effie (Baker) Seymour, Oscar Hobson Baker, Emmitt L. Baker, Luther Houston (Lute) Baker, Homer Cornelius (Bake) Baker, Etha Etheldred (Sis) (Baker) Donaldson and Essie Vertel (Baker) Wilds. They were all buried at Valliant Cemetery, McCurtain County, OK, except Ola Myrtle Brassfield who was buried at Hillcrest Memorial Park, Bakersfield, Kern County, California.

Sallie Laverna (Pettit) Baker's parents were John Wesley "J. W." Pettit and Etha Lucinda "Etha" (McMillon) Pettit from Wills Point, Van Zandt County, TX, and her grandparents were Silas and Mary Ann Pettit and William M. McMillon and Lucinda (McDaniel) McMillon.

SALLIE (PETTIT) BAKER had twelve (12) siblings. Her half sister and half brother were Maggie Pettit-born January 7, 1862 in Alabama, and Ben Pettit-born September 2, 1865 in Alabama, as their mother died and Sallie's dad, John Wesley Pettit later married Etha Lucinda McMillon, who was a sister to Mary Jane, John Wesley's first wife. They had all the other children. They were Mary Susi (Pettit) McDonald-born December 30, 1870 in Texas, John Henry Pettit-born January 19, 1872-died June 9, 1873, James Reed Pettit-born December 23, 1873, Ollie Pettit-born March 27, 1875, Sallie Laverna (Pettit) Baker-born September 8, 1876-October 14, 1931 (Valliant Cemetery, McCurtain County, OK). Nannie (Pettit) Gilbert-born February 25, 1878, Robert Scott Pettit-born July 18, 1880, Lucinda May (Pettit) Patterson-born November 18, 1882, Fannie (Pettit) Price-born July 13, 1884-died in 1918, Hiram Pettit-born December 8, 1886 and Alvis Pettit-born February 28, 1889. Most of them lived at various places in Texas and were buried in Texas.

Sallie's parents, John Wesley Pettit and Etha Lucinda (McMillon) Pettit stayed in Wills Point, Texas and did not move to Oklahoma, but Daniel Arthur and Sallie (Pettit) Baker moved with their children to Oklahoma in about 1906 or 1907. It took them several days, as they were traveling in a wagon train and had to ford Red River with their animals and covered wagons to get into Oklahoma. They moved to Ardmore, OK. Some of the families in the wagon train moved to other parts of Southern Oklahoma, but the Arthur Cornelius Baker Family and the Daniel Arthur Baker Family made their home in Ardmore.

They didn't stay in Ardmore very long, but Sallie and Daniel's two youngest children, Etha Etheldred (Sis)(Baker) Donaldson and Essie Vertel (Baker) Wilds were born there in 1908 and 1910, respectively. Daniel and Sallie's older children were all born in Wills Point.

In 1911, Sallie Laverna and Daniel Arthur moved down to Mt. Zion Community, Valliant, McCurtain County, OK. All their children, Oscar, Myrtle, Tina, Emmitt, Luther "Lute", Homer "Bake", Etheldred (Sis) and Essie attended Mt.Zion Grade School. The school was located on Pritchett's Corner at that time.

One time, after Sallie and husband Daniel Arthur Baker had settled in Mt. Zion Community, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, a traveling salesman came by at a time when Sallie was not home. He was selling pianos, and he talked Daniel Arthur into trading a horse and a cow for one of his pianos. When Sallie got home and found out what he had done, she was not happy! They needed that horse and cow badly, and she was very upset about the trade he made.

Sallie passed away about twenty (20) years before her husband, Daniel Arthur Baker.

They were both buried at Valliant Cemetery, Valliant, McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Sallie Laverna (Pettit) Baker and Daniel Arthur Baker's Grave site is on Far West side of cemetery, just Left after entering West Drive-through Gate. There is a headstone, but it was purchased in 1986 with donations from Baker family members...mostly their grandchildren.

(Contributed by Helen (Baker) Foglesong, a granddaughter of Sallie Laverna (Pettit) Baker)