Wanda Sue Green and Gene Baker Green

Wanda Sue Hawkins was born January 8, 1933 to David and Willie Hawkins, a Texas belle, the youngest of 10 children, and a twin. She moved with her family to California where she lived enjoying church, hiking up Mount Rubido with friends and family, and seeing movies at the theater where she worked till she graduated from Rubido High. She then, young and alone, bravely moved to L.A. from Riverside to obtain work in the clerical field. A friend of her brother’s was smitten by her and worried about her being “a nice girl” all alone in a big city, so he followed her, sleeping in his car outside her apartment, there in the a.m. to make sure she ate breakfast and in the p.m. to make sure she had a decent dinner and got home at night safely. She said he was so persistent and quite good looking, with a sexy walk, and before she knew it, it was November and they were off to get married in Las Vegas. Sheila Dawn was born the following August. She went on to have another child, a boy named Rodney Ray, but he was lost to SIDS at only six months of age. With the help of family and friends they healed and went on to have their third child, Jeannie Diane, named after her dad. They decided a change in scenery would be nice and packed up the family to move to Seattle, Washington, where they lived and eventually passed. Wanda loved buying and selling antiques, garage sales, flea markets, secondhand stores, Elvis Presley, with whom she shared a birthday, and football, especially the Dallas Cowboys. She was a homemaker and enjoyed bowling in a league in her early years, and fishing and camping with the family. Sadly, Gene, her husband, passed when Wanda was 71 years old.

Wanda raised her two daughters who each had two children. Wanda passed having two great-grandsons at the age of 83.

Gene Baker Green

Gene Baker Green was born September 17, 1927 in Arizona, the youngest of five children to Dallas and Kitty Green. The family then moved to California. Gene contracted polio at two years of age and endured multiple surgeries, but he was able to eventually walk. His father was the deputy sheriff in their town but sadly passed when Gene was only seven years old. His mother never remarried. Gene was married at 19, but it ended in divorce and he married Wanda Sue Hawkins, his one true love. Gene loved reading and watching Westerns, working crossword puzzles, watching football, fishing, baking, canning jams, wine making, boating, camping, and family vacations. He had a fondness for spirits, music, and singing to Eddy Arnold, Harry Belafonte, and old Irish folk songs. Gene was a butcher and a truck driver but settled on appliance repair, opening his own business and working up into his 70s. His customers wouldn’t let him retire; they trusted him and were loyal. He was funny, a great story teller, and very well liked by all. Gene passed at the age of 79.