Sarah Janelle Anthony Baker, 93, passed from this life on January 28, 2026. The daughter of Emmett Virgil and Ruth Leatherwood Anthony, she was born on April 3, 1932 in Panola County, Mississippi. She grew up on her family farm in the Chapel Hill Community with her brother Emmett Bernard Anthony and her cousin Mickey Crowell.

Mrs. Baker graduated with high honors from Pope High School, where she ran track and played basketball. She attended Northwest Junior College on a basketball scholarship.

Mrs. Baker married her husband Dennis Murphree Baker on January 27, 1951, and they moved to Oxford to start their married life while he attended Ole Miss Law School. After graduating law school, the Bakers settled in Batesville, Mississippi, where they began his law practice and committed themselves to a life of public service, civic activities, and dedication to their family, church and community.

Mrs. Baker supported her husband by serving as office manager of his law practice, and by raising their three children. When Mr. Baker became a Chancery Court Judge, she travelled with him to legal conferences and Judicial College educational programs. She was active in judicial wives events and made dear friends throughout the state of Mississippi and around the country.

Judge and Mrs. Baker were fans and followers of Ole Miss basketball and football. They regularly attended Ole Miss basketball games as season ticket holders, sitting behind the goal with a large group of fans from Batesville, which included Judge Baker’s brother, Mayor Bobby Baker, and his wife Nell Baker.

A lifelong Methodist, Mrs. Baker met her husband when he was sent to pick her up and bring her to Chapel Hill Methodist Church to play the piano for the night service. Together they joined the First Methodist Church of Batesville and actively supported their church with their presence, tithes, and prayers. Mrs. Baker had been a faithful servant to her church and was its oldest living member.

Mrs. Baker’s greatest legacy is her family, and the love they feel for her. Having six grandchildren, she was fondly called MeMa by her eldest and Mimi by her youngest grandchildren. She was a wonderful cook and hostess for family gatherings, and she and Judge Baker would bring the grandchildren together for a family summer camp, which Mrs. Baker organized as camp director. Her loved ones remember her for her strength of spirit, her unwavering faith, her sensible, “no-nonsense” worldview she imparted with wit and wisdom, and the love and kindness she showed them all through the years.

Mrs. Baker was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her son Dennis M. Baker II, her brother Bernard Anthony and Cousin Micky Crowell. She is survived by her oldest daughter Jonell Baker Beeler (Jesse) of Brandon, Mississippi, her youngest daughter Kathleen Baker Cruzen (Philip, deceased) of Germantown, Tennessee, her daughter-in-law Connie Graves Baker (Dennis, deceased) of Batesville, grandchildren; Philip Warren Cruzen Jr. (Whitney), Sarah Ann Williamson, Stephen Baker Cruzen (Vickie), Robert Chapman Williamson III (John), Julia Cruzen Scales (Mark), Graves Baker and step-granddaughter, Angie Beeler Wade . She also leaves her great grandchildren Baker, Katie, Elizabeth, Layne, Beasley and step- grandchildren, Preston John, Kailie, Alyssa and Jesse Logan, many nephews and nieces and other loving relatives and friends.

The family will receive friends Tuesday, February 3, 2026, from 12:00noon until the funeral service, beginning at 1:00pm at Batesville First Methodist Church.

Dickins Funeral Home Batesville, MS is entrusted with the arrangements.