February 9, 2014
Our mom, Patricia Louise Tully Baird was fond of saying, "I should have never left Kenosha." In her later years, she missed being part of a tight knit community of family and friends such as she might have had if she had stayed in Wisconsin. Her final wish was to be buried on the family plot there, next to our Dad's burial site, so she will be back in Kenosha.
But leave she did, and she and our dad took us all on their adventure.
Patricia was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on February 5, 1927, the youngest of seven children, to James E. Tully and Helen Alethea Clough Tully. James was a second-generation immigrant from Navin, Ireland. He was the County judge who sat with the very first women jurors of the state of Wisconsin. Our original Tully Irish ancestor, Peter Tully, James’ grandfather, was a hard-working brick-laying company owner. She often described the way her mother Alethea enjoyed the big, jolly Irish family she married into, as Alethea came from a strict Methodist family that did not play cards, dance or drink. Patsy, as she was called by some in the family, took piano lessons and excelled in school. One of her most formative late childhood disappointments was how difficult the Great Depression was for the entire family and because of it, she could not attend college. She was the last child in the home and related that her father James was an honest judge and lawyer, and would not accept bribes. Therefore the family did not do well financially and lost their home and land and even had to sell the car that Alethea was so proud of. This was a lean and difficult time for the Tullys and Pat often described the anguish of being worried about her mother's mental well-being everyday when she came home from school. Happier recollections were about being a "bobby soxer" and loving Frank Sinatra, of whom she was a lifelong fan. She was an Irish beauty and this is obvious in her high school pictures. You can't miss her saddleshoes and bobby sox which she wore even after marriage.
Another difficult trauma was a serious car accident that she experienced as a late teenager, where she spent nine months in the hospital recuperating. However, had she not been in that accident, she likely would have married her boyfriend, who was sitting next to her and who escaped the crash intact, and whom she was promised to. Their engagement was put on hold, and after her long recovery, she went to work to help the family financially. The job she spoke fondly of was working as a secretary for a "song peddler" in Chicago. She would take the commuter train and got to know people in the exciting music publishing business there. When a new song was written it had to be promoted by the publishers. She was also very proud of her brother-in-law, Tony Iavello, married to her oldest sister, Dorothy, who was a professional musician, composer and big band leader. Because of her love and knowledge of music, they shared a deep bond. She once tried to get her boss to introduce her to Frank Sinatra and he protected her and unhesitatingly declined saying, "Pat, he eats little girls like you for lunch." We were this close to being Sinatras.
She then took a job as a secretary for Johnson's Wax in Racine, Wisconsin in the famous headquarters designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. She was one of the secretaries that had to learn to balance on Wright’s 3-legged chairs. She remembers the distinguished architect sweeping into the building on occasion, fluorishing his cape and being very lordly.
It was while working for Johnson's Wax that she met our dad, Tom Baird. Her other boyfriend, who was still in the picture but had created some distance between them after the car accident, was no match to the wit, charm and ‘joie de vivre’ of our dad. They were brought together by their mutual admiration of Jazz music, and particularly of Sarah Vaughn, one of the queens of jazz vocals. Our father was ultimately charmed by the only woman he knew who had a better Jazz record collection than he did. This shared love of Jazz was formative for our family, as we grew up listening to jazz and other great music. We still have our parents’ great record collection. Music has always been a central part our lives.
Pat and Tom thus became an item. They were married April 14, 1951. They got their kicks on a honeymoon following Route 66 and made it all the way out to the end, visiting with Pat’s sister Dorothy in Los Angeles, California. Dorothy is the last remaining member of her immediate family, having recently turned 100.
Soon after, our dad was recalled into the Air Force during the Korean War and was stationed for a time in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Lorna was born there on December 25, 1952. The story about her birth is that there were four wives on the base expecting babies close to Christmas. The doctor who delivered our sister had made a request to the ladies to allow him to enjoy his Christmas meal with relatives. Of course, all four babies were born on that Christmas day. Lorna’s first home was a trailer, not a manger!
When the Korean stint was over, they moved back to Kenosha, lived with Pat’s parents James and Alethea, and Tom went back to Johnson's Wax. There he joined the executive fast track and accepted an assignment to move to Mexico City to help start a Johnson's Wax company there. James and Alethea were astonished that Pat, now pregnant with our brother Tom, would move so far away. Their original plan was to stay only for a few years so our dad could climb the company ladder. She was seven months pregnant when she moved there. Our brother Tom Jr. was born on February 27, 1955 at the American Hospital in Mexico City.
Our mom and dad diverted from their original plan and stayed in Latin America for over 30 years, mostly residing in Mexico City until the late 1980's. Our dad worked with Johnson's Wax and later Pfizer. They enjoyed an exciting lifestyle with the expat and international community. When they first moved to Mexico City, it was a pollution-free city of about 6 million and a very cosmopolitan place to be. My dad never wanted to go back to what he referred to as "peddling milk" like he did growing up delivering milk for the family business in his hometown of Grand Ledge, Michigan. During those years together, their idea of the perfect vacation holiday was to stay at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, and go to Broadway shows. We made trips up to the States often to see relatives and also had memorable vacations visiting the quaint and beautiful sites of Mexico. We and my parents lived a bit of the "Mad Men" lifestyle in Mexico City instead of Manhattan. In fact, at one point, our dad was the creative director at “Cartón y Papel de México,” a company that made the packaging of boxes for multiple products. There were lively cocktail parties, two maids to help with childcare and housework, company homes to use on the weekends in Cuernavaca, martini lunches at world-class restaurants and music venues.
Our brother Peter was born in Mexico City as well on March 31, 1960 and shared a birthday with our dad. Shortly after his birth, our dad accepted a job with Pfizer in Bogotá, Colombia. Lorna and Tom attended the Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogotá and Peter was the cute little brother with the perfectly coiffed hair when David was born on May 13, 1962. Memories of the Bogotá days are the assasination of JFK, going to Baranquilla and seeing some great Cumbia dancers and leaving David with the doting Colombian maids while the family took a carribbean cruise to Jamaica. We left Colombia in 1965, as our parents much preferred the life they had in Mexico City. Our dad took a lateral promotion within Pfizer to return to Mexico City and then took other work with Mobil Oil, then Container Corporation (Cartón y Papel), he later ran his own Public Relations company called Hemisférica, and finally was a "headhunter" matching executives with jobs before he succumbed to lung cancer in October of 1985 at the age of 62.
In the early 70's, our mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and was treated successfully. Shortly after that, she started working at the American School where we all went to school, as admissions director. She built up a position that offered a service that had not previously existed, of helping families register and feel welcomed to their new school community. She had some great stories of registering the children of celebrities like the Mexican film icon, Cantinflas, and also opera singer Plácido Domingo's son. When she made a comment about Plácido, his son said, "You know my dad?" She was very proud of her work and was well appreciated there. Pretty much all of the people we came to know and make friends with knew our mom because of her position at the school. She and our dad were also very proud (and us grateful!) of their hard work putting us four kids through college in the United States, debt-free.
Our mom and dad always supported us in our interests. Lorna got into singing through our parents' encouragement. They attended many sports events that the brothers were involved in. Our dad was a ‘Bear Booster’, supporting the athletic teams of our high school. He had an amazing ability to talk to anybody and he often invited people he met to our beautiful Mexican colonial-style home, which our parents had built in 1965, on a cobble-stone street on the west part of the city, and designed by a well-known Mexican architect Tomás Cajiga. Our mom had a real gift for interior decorating and they enjoyed sharing our home and were generous hosts. Our dad and his company, Cartón y Papel, also got involved with promoting Mexican and Latin American artists and sponsoring shows of their limited edition prints. We are fortunate to have many amazing art pieces by lesser known and very well known artists like Rufino Tamayo, because of these shows. Our mom had a knack for knowing the perfect place to show off the art in our home.
One of our family stories is the time the Bear Boosters hosted Darrell Royal, the famous University of Texas football coach. Our dad was, at the time, the gregarious head of the Bear Boosters. The story goes that (in the 70's some time) Darrell accepted to come Mexico to speak to the graduate athletes of our high school, and was subsequently invited to come to our house, along with his entourage which happen to include, a then-rising star, Willie Nelson. At one point in the evening, Darrell was enjoying the hospitality so much that he told Willie to go on down to the hotel and get his "geetar". Our family friend, Mr. Diez, drove him down, not a short trip, and he came back and sat on Lorna’s old high chair in the living room and graced the guests with his music. Peter and David, who were young teenagers, joke about remembering that they preferred to watch Mexican television in our parent’s bedroom over listening to ‘whoever it was’ in the living room and bemoaning "another one of mom and dad's boring parties".
The next chapter of our mom's life is related to Peter and David going to the University of Colorado. She was widowed while still in her 50's and after a year of staying in Mexico City she decided to start a new life in Boulder, Colorado. She bravely set out on a new path and moved to a condo that she and my dad had bought for ‘the boys’ to live in while they attended college. She fixed it up, sold it and moved to another Boulder condo where she resided for many years. She enjoyed taking classes and attending cultural events at CU, played bridge, tennis, and met many new friends. She thoroughly enjoyed being an 'elderhosteller' and travelled to many classes all over the United States. She was an avid and expert bridge player and came very close to completing her master points in bridge. She was also a great crossworder and possessed a great memory. Her life experiences were rich and she enjoyed conversations about music, famous people, international cultural affairs, movies, and her family over a glass of Pinot Grigio.
While in Boulder, she was eventually diagnosed with several health issues and she moved to Heritage Club in Denver, an elder-care facility not far from Peter and Sue. Her last chapter of life was spent there making friends, and being cared for. She was still going out to play bridge up until a few years ago, and was able to attend musical events, movies and happy hour. A few years ago she fell and broke her hip but rallied and was getting around pretty well with her walker. When she couldn't get out to play bridge anymore and her mind was not functioning as she wanted, she lost her "oomph" but she still maintained a pretty good memory until the end. She finally passed peacefully in the company of her children on February 9, 2014 at the age of 87 years old.
She leaves behind Lorna Baird, married to Mike Coffield, of Oakland, California, grandchildren Jesse McKeithen and his wife Katy Lambe, also of Oakland, Dana McKeithen Rouleau and her husband Aaron Rouleau of San Francisco, Michaela Coffield, also of Oakland; son Tom Baird Jr. and his wife Lindi Baird, of Nashville, Tennessee, grandson Tom III of Nashville and granddaughter Lindsley of St. Petersburg, Florida; son Peter and his wife Sue Baird of Denver, Colorado and their son Will, student at Colorado College; son David and his wife Danielle Short, David’s daughter Chloe Salsich-Baird in Boulder, Colorado, David’s son Beau Stork in Delaware, Ohio, and Danielle’s daughter Camila and their mutual child Micah, the youngest grandchild, almost 3 years old.
We are all truly grateful to our parents for their adventuresome spirits. Our lives have been enriched a thousand times over because of their choices. Thank you, mom and dad and we thank you all for being among the people that they knew and loved. We celebrate their lives and all of ours in return.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Association at www.rmdsa.org in honor of her grandson Micah Baird-Short.
The family would also like to thank the staff at Heritage Club in Denver and Denver Hospice for their compassion and care for our mom.
Our warmest regards,
The Baird children Lorna, Tom, Peter and David