Morbid Curiosity: The Tragic Death of Edith Baker, et al.

Posted on by spuddled

This week’s theme is “Morbid Curiosity,” although doesn’t that really describe most of these entries? Anyway, our focus for this one is Edith Elizabeth Baker, my fourth cousin twice removed. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on 13 November 1922, she was the third great-granddaughter of my fifth great-grandparents, John and Mary (Simpkins) Furrow. She was the third child of Horace Madison and Rebecca “Beckie” (Reeves) Baker, with older sisters Hazel Marie and Florence Marguerite. When Edith was born, her father was 42 and a fireman; her mother was 28. She was born at home, at 306 S Woodrow Street in Little Rock.1

In 1930 the family was enumerated in the same house on Woodrow Street. Horace was listed as a railroad engineer, 48 years old. “Rebeca” was 38, Hazel 12, Florence 9, and Edith 7.2 The tragedy that struck the family came six months later; information can be gleaned from newspaper articles as well as Edith’s death certificate. The latter notes her date of death as 15 October 1930 and states she died at 5th and Booker Streets in Little Rock, the result of an automobile accident. The certificate also notes that an inquisition was held, and that Edith was buried on 17 October at Roselawn Cemetery.3

A more detailed account of the accident is provided by contemporary newspaper articles. The Jonesboro [Arkansas] Evening Sun of 16 October 1930 describes how Edith and her father were walking next to the curb on a street which had no sidewalk. Drivers of two cars, approaching at an intersection, realized they were about to collide, and swerved. The cars struck one another and spun. One of the cars pinned Horace and Edith against a telephone pole. Edith’s head and chest were crushed, while her father’s left leg, collar bone, and possibly his skull, were fractured. He had still not regained consciousness by the time the article went to press.

The drivers, along with witnesses including one physician, tended to the wounded, although Edith was dead on arrival at the Baptist State Hospital. The news article revealed also that the driver whose car pinned Horace and Edith against the telephone pole was J. E. Garrison, a Little Rock Police Department patrolman, and the driver of the other car was D. R. Fones, secretary of the Little Rock School Board. Patrolman Garrison was immediately suspended pending further review, and both men were released on a $1000 bond, charged with manslaughter. The investigation appears to have proceeded quickly. By 18 October, three days after Edith’s death, the Southwest American of Fort Smith, Arkansas, was reporting that both Garrison and Fones had been exonerated of criminal negligence.

Life went on for the Baker family, as it does, though there is still more tragedy to come. Still in Little Rock in 1940 in the house on S Woodrow, the household consisted of Horace, Rebecca, and Florence, along with nieces Marjorie and Maxine Baker, and a granddaughter named Reba Sue Baker.4 Reba, as we shall see, was the daughter of eldest daughter Hazel, though I’m not sure where Hazel was in 1940 or 1950. By 1950 the household had shrunk once more, now consisting just of Horace, Rebecca, and their granddaughter, now listed by her full name, Rebecca Sue.5 Interestingly, they are still at the same address, which means either this Zillow record is incorrect, or the Baker family had a new house built in 1945 to replace the one they’d lived in since at least 1922.

Horace would live another six years, dying on 26 April 1956 of uremia and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.6 His wife died 30 March 1963 of coronary thrombosis and coronary sclerosis (at least I think that’s what it says).7 Returning to the vanishing Hazel, though I haven’t found her marriage record, I did find a record of her divorce from a J. C. Camp on in November 1950. The decree notes that no children were affected by the decree, suggesting Rebecca was not his daughter.8

Nine years after the divorce, the second tragedy would strike, but the groundwork was laid in 1952. On 3 January of that year in Faulkner, Arkansas, Rebecca (the younger) married Jimmie R. Scott. She was 18, and he was 22.9 The following year the young couple had a daughter, Sue Ellen.10 Daughter Norma Jo was born sometime around the middle of 1957, and Charlotte Jean followed around September 1958. Apparently it was not a happy household, however, as by January 1959 Rebecca had filed for divorce, with Jimmie also seeking custody of the children. Again, details are provided by newspaper and death records.

On 5 January Jimmie, Rebecca, Sue Ellen, and Charlotte were in downtown Little Rock. Norma does not appear to have been with them. The foursome had visited a doctor’s office in “the busy Donaghey Building.” Jimmie left the doctor’s office first, then waited for Rebecca, who was carrying Charlotte, in a stairwell. When Rebecca reached him, her estranged husband pushed her into the stairwell, pulled out a gun and began firing at Rebecca before turning the gun on himself. Luckily, neither Sue Ellen nor Charlotte were physically injured, although both witnessed the attack.11

Rebecca’s death certificate, which lists her father as a Bob Camp, notes her cause of death as “Gun shot wound of chest and head,” noting she lived “a very few moments” after the shooting, and listing the manner of death as homicide by her estranged husband.12 Jimmy’s death certificate notes his manner of death as suicide. The two were buried in two different cemeteries.13 Hazel would outlive her murdered daughter by 17 years, dying at age 58 of an acute coronary occlusion.14

What of the remaining child of Horace and Rebecca (the elder)? Florence was married on 14 May 1945 to Paul S. Thurston.15 On Halloween of that year Paul enlisted at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, and by 1950 Paul and Florence, along with daughter Janice and son James, were living at Fort Bliss Air Force Base in El Paso.16 17 Another daughter, Patty, would later join the family. Florence and Paul were married for 37 years before his death in July 1982.18 Florence would die in 2003. A grandson, as well as her husband, preceded her in death; she was survived by her three children, two grandsons, and a chihuahua named Tia Maria.19

  1. Arkansas Department of Health, Vital Records Section; Little Rock, AR, USA; Birth Certificates; Year: 1922 ↩︎
  2. Year: 1930; Census Place: Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas; Page: 41A; Enumeration District: 0033; FHL microfilm: 2339827 ↩︎
  3. Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Death Certificates; Year: 1930; Roll: 5 ↩︎
  4. Year: 1940; Census Place: Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas; Roll: m-t0627-00168; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 60-63 ↩︎
  5. National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas; Roll: 1818; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 77-107 ↩︎
  6. Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Death Certificates; Year: 1956; Roll: 2 ↩︎
  7. Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Death Certificates; Year: 1963 ↩︎
  8. Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Divorces; Year: 1950; Film Number: 4 ↩︎
  9. Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Marriage Certificates; Year: 1952; Film: #6 ↩︎
  10. Pulaski County Clerk; Little Rock, Arkansas; Marriage Records ↩︎
  11. Hope [Arkansas] Star, 6 January 1959, pg. 8 ↩︎
  12. Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Death Certificates; Year: 1959; Roll: 1 ↩︎
  13. Arkansas Department of Vital Records; Little Rock, Arkansas; Death Certificates; Year: 1959; Roll: 1 ↩︎
  14. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124102775/hazel_marie-camp: accessed February 7, 2026), memorial page for Hazel Marie Baker Camp (3 Oct 1917–16 Sep 1976), Find a Grave Memorial ID 124102775, citing Bradfield Chapel Cemetery, Daingerfield, Morris County, Texas, USA; Maintained by KindredWhispers (contributor 46986453). ↩︎
  15. Pulaski County Clerk; Little Rock, Arkansas; Marriage Records ↩︎
  16. National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland, USA; Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946; NAID: 1263923; Record Group Title: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1789-ca. 2007; Record Group: 64; Box Number: 00381; Reel: 106 ↩︎
  17. National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Fort Bliss Military Reservation and Biggs Air Force Base, El Paso, Texas; Roll: 4174; Page: 78; Enumeration District: 71-13 ↩︎
  18. Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File ↩︎
  19. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/florence-thurston-obituary?id=29936340 ↩︎

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