Rachel Arlene Baker

Rachel Arlene Baker died November 19, 2018, at age ninety, in Menifee, California, following a lengthy series of illnesses. She was born August 24, 1928, in Winchester, Indiana, to Alva Lee Baker, Sr. and Elsie May Johnson Baker. After living in Indiana and Tennessee, her family moved to Highland County. Arlene graduated from Hillsboro High School where she was a majorette. When her divorced mother married widower-druggist Edwin Billingham Ayres in 1946, Arlene and Ed bonded as daughter and father. Arlene held many jobs over the course of a long and active life, among them was clerk at Ed B. Ayres Drug Company, file clerk at Producers Livestock, dry-cleaning store owner-operator, and more. She is predeceased by her parents, her step-father, her brother Alva L. Baker, Jr., and husbands Peter Bean Tolle, Charles Elmer Jordan, John Thomas Stewart, and William Eugene Krouse. She is survived by step-niece Judy Krouse (William) and her step-nephew Christopher Sayre Ayres Duckworth (Bonnie). She is interred in Riverside National Cemetery. Arlene's beauty and vibrant personality lite up whatever room she entered. Her kindness, her sense of humor, her devotion, and her passion endeared her to her many friends and family and brought joy and comfort to all who knew her.