Joanna Baker

Joanna "Jody" Prentiss Baker

Jody died peacefully on December 21, 2022, in Kansas City, Missouri. She was 78 years old and had been living in a long-care facility in Kansas City, Missouri, near her sister, Ashley Nugent.

Jody was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on July 20, 1944. She was the second child of Robert Hardy Baker and Mary Bourne Sill. She attended the Stevens Cooperative School in Hoboken, New Jersey, which was founded by her mother.

When the family moved to Massachusetts, Jody attended the Westborough schools. After graduation, she moved to Montreal, Canada, and studied English and French at McGill University.

After college Jody and Ashley packed their bags and flew to Europe. They saw the sights starting in England and going as far as Greece, then turning around to see the fabulous Alps, Germany, the Netherlands, England, then returning to Westborough.

Jody had an artistic streak. She wrote and designed the best greeting cards. She loved art stores and liked to stock up on paper, paint, brushes, and wire (for wire sculpture). A recent series in pen and ink shows worms standing up and chatting with their worm friends.

Jody loved cats, but not dogs, unless they wagged their tails for a treat. Almost every week Jody would visit Ashley, have a chat and some coffee, get lunch out, and go shopping. Jody was a gentle soul with a curious and sharp mind. She enjoyed books, languages, crafting, and having her nails done.

Jody is survived by her sister Ashley Nugent, brother Francis (Frank) Baker and wife Wilma, nephew Matthew Nugent and partner Carrie Plummer, niece Megan Galicia and husband Esteban Galicia Segovia, and great nieces Sam and Colette Nugent. Her brother Robert died in 2009. Many thanks to Michelle Martin and to the staff at Good Shepard Hospice for their care and compassion during Jody's final days. In July 2023, following a small family gathering to celebrate Jody’s life, Jody was buried next to her parents in the Pine Grove Cemetery in Westborough, MA.

She sweeps with many-colored brooms,

And leaves the shreds behind;

Oh, housewife in the evening west,

Come back, and dust the pond!

You dropped a purple raveling in,

You dropped an amber thread;

And now you've littered all the East

With duds of emerald!

And still she plies her spotted brooms,

And still the aprons fly,

Till brooms fade softly into stars

And then I come away

Emily Dickinson