Margaret Mary Baker

Peggy Baker was born Margaret Mary Kurdila in Warren, Ohio on Feb 17, 1943. At the age of 81, she passed away on Thursday, July 25, 2024. Her parents, Catherine and Andrew Kurdila, had six children. She was the fourth with two older brothers, Andrew Bernard and Gerald Kurdila, an older sister Marianne Zazycki and two younger sisters, Helen Lyden and Catherine Kurdila. Peggy was by all accounts very bright and successful in school and by her own account a bit of a tomboy. She attended Pittsburgh's Mount Mercy College (now Carlow University) on an academic scholarship, majoring in Biochemistry. She met her husband, Jim, in Pittsburgh and they married in 1964 after she graduated. Choosing to follow his military career rather than pursue a professional life, she spent two years with him in Cold War Europe and cared for the family during his two Vietnam tours. Peggy loved sports and kids. She was a natural-born coach. She helped start a kids' soccer league on a military post, coached an intramural girls' softball team there, and took a 12-year-old girls' softball team to a VA state tournament. Upon moving to Lubbock, she coached 14-year-old girls' softball to a city championship. She also coached a 12-year-old boys' soccer team and an 8-year-old girls' basketball team. All the while, she played recreational softball until her throwing shoulder gave out. Once her children were old enough, Peggy went to work at Plains Linen and rose from telephone receptionist to be the overall plant manager. After she retired, she traveled with her husband, mostly in a camper van, to all contiguous 48 states, 4 Canadian provinces, Europe, Queensland, Australia and New Zealand. She loved plays and traveled to New York and London several times to experience theater offerings. She was very fond of Pam and Jay Brown's Lubbock Community Theater and the Texas Tech Student Theater. Peggy volunteered at the Lubbock Friends of the Library, serving as vice-president, organizing and supervising book sales. She will be missed by her family: her husband Jim; daughter Barbara George and her husband Jim Latta of Lubbock; son Edward Baker of Del Norte, Colorado; and daughter Margaret Lynn Baker and her husband Paul Mulligan of Denver, Colorado. She is also survived by her three grandchildren: Emily George and her husband Douglas Bradley of Dallas, Texas; Chad and Amanda George and their daughter Ellie, Peggy's great-granddaughter, of Lubbock; and Keira Mulligan of Denver, Colorado. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Lubbock Meals on Wheels in Peggy Baker's memory.

Margaret Mary Baker

February 17, 1943 - July 25, 2024