Louis Owen Baker

LOUIS OWEN BAKER

Louis Owen Baker, 93, of Benton, Louisiana, went to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Friday, February 7, 2025 at high noon. At his side were his wife of 71 years, Billie Jo Baker, and his daughter, Patti Baker Dennis. 

Louis was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on December 18, 1931 to Frank Leslie Baker and Audra Chandler Baker of Princeton, Louisiana. He graduated from Haughton High School with a full basketball scholarship to LA Tech University but decided to attend Centenary College in Shreveport because he wanted to stay close to his family. He worked at Caterpillar Equipment to pay for his tuition. 

Louis married his long-time sweetheart Billie Jo Linder during his senior year at Centenary College. Upon graduation he was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces and transferred to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. There he served as an Academic Instructor from 1954-1958. While stationed at LAFB, Louis and Billie Jo had two daughters, Mimi Jo and Patti Rene’. The family then moved to Bossier City, Louisiana and Louis secured employment with the Bossier Parish School Board as a teacher and coach at Bossier Elementary School. While there he coordinated the first-ever Field Day for students in a Bossier Parish school. He later taught social studies at Rusheon Middle School, also in Bossier City, where he coached the boys’ basketball and football teams. 

During his 30 years with the BPSB, Louis was instrumental in beginning the first Head Start program in Bellevue, Louisiana. He also worked to transform the Bellevue Missile Plant into a Vo-Tech School for high school students. It was so successful that Louis was given the task of spearheading another Vo-Tech school on Cox Street in Bossier City near Bossier High School. He was Principal of the Bossier Skill Center for many years up until his retirement from the BPSB. 

Louis had always worked more than one job throughout his lifetime. He and his wife ran a successful real estate company dating back to the mid-1960s. Louis Baker & Associates was well-known and respected by fellow realtors and appraisers. Being an educator at heart, Louis decided to start a school to teach real estate agents, brokers and appraisers – Baker’s Real Estate College. Both Louis and Billie Jo taught night classes and all-day Saturday classes and the school was licensed in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas.  Louis loved to work and he worked until he was in his 80s. He never went on a vacation in his entire lifetime. Louis used to say that a man who loves his job never works a day in his life and that is exactly how he felt. He loved teaching both children and adults and encouraging them to always strive to be the very best that they could be – and to never, never quit.

Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Billie Jo Baker; daughter, Patti Dennis; granddaughter Rebecca Dennis Leggett and husband, Jeremy; grandson William Henry Dennis, III; granddaughter Patti Jo Hasten and husband, Taylor McCommon; and great-grandsons Levi Leggett and Owen Leggett. 

The family would like to thank the kind and compassionate nurses and aides of Amedisys Hospice who helped provide care for Louis at his home after the stroke he suffered on December 28, 2024.