Walter Baker, owner of Manning Food Market and a member of the Manning City Council, died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his store Thursday morning, March 3, 1977. He was 55.

Baker came to Manning in 1965 when he purchased the store. A brother Harold came to Manning as meat manager of Manning Food a year later.
First elected to the city council in 1971, Baker was currently serving his third term in office.
He was a member of the Manning Rotary Club, and held many different offices in the Zion Lutheran Church in Manning and other towns where he had lived.

Baker entered the grocery business after graduation froth high school in 1939. He served overseas in the military during World War II from 1941 to 1946, and following his discharge, continued in the grocery line.
First managing Council Oak Stores and later the National Food Stores, Baker was located in the following towns before coming to Manning: Dunlap, Laurel, Nebr., Ponca, Nebr., Mapleton, Sac City and Cherokee.

The son of J.E. and Etta Teneyck Baker, he was born May 27, 1921, in Dunlap. He attended Dunlap schools and was a graduate of Dunlap High School.
He was married to Genevieve Christiansen March 12, 1944.

Survivors include his wife Gen, secretary to the superintendent at Manning Schools; two sons, Ronald, head of a loan office at Chillicothe, Mo., and Darrell, a Naval Dental Officer at Seattle, Washington, and three grandchildren. Also surviving are the following brothers and sisters: Leo and Everett of Dunlap, Mrs. Francis (Ella) Burr of Omaha, Nebr., and Harold of Manning.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one sister, and one brother.

Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Zion Lutheran Church in Manning' with the Rev. Edward F. Heinicke officiating. Burial was in Manning Cemetery under the direction of Ohde Funeral Home.

Pallbearers were Merle Stoelk, Elden Schroeder, Jim Mork, Paul Bjorkgren, Ralph Grundmeier and Robert Hoffmann.
The store will be temporarily managed by Mrs. Gen Baker. Future plans are yet undecided