A century of service: Historic Baker Funeral Home celebrates milestone anniversary
Ruth “Cookie” Baker remembers her childhood home, long gone to progress, in the neighborhood where her family’s funeral business has thrived over a century.
Neighbors helped each other in the close-knit Black community once located just east of the intersection of Rosedale and South Main streets, the 78-year-old said.
“There was a community here and they lived all up and down the street,” Cookie Baker said, gesturing to the Tarrant County and JPS Health Network medical offices now located across Rosedale. “Now when we look at this area — I think they call it Near Southside — it is amazing to see the changes since I was a little girl. My family lived with my grandfather in a house that was on Bryan Avenue, which is just about where that big building is across the street.”
She recalled her family’s role in shaping the city’s Historic Southside District as relatives, city officials and community members gathered Sept. 20 to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Fort Worth’s first Black-owned funeral home, already noted with a marker from the Texas Historical Commission.
The two-story cream-brick building at 301 E. Rosedale St. has been a community hub for decades, bringing people together to worship and grieve.
Over 100 years, Cookie Baker said, the Baker Funeral Home’s mission remains the same — serving the community in times of need.
The business was launched in 1917 by Cookie’s father James Nathan Baker Sr., a former Pullman porter, and mother-in-law Mattie Gaston Barnes to serve Cleburne’s Black community. The funeral home struggled in the early days.
After James Baker became a licensed embalmer in 1922, he and wife, Ransome Antoinette, moved to Fort Worth in 1926 and opened Baker Undertaking Co. while maintaining the Cleburne site as a branch. They operated out of a two-story family home owned by his father, the Rev. Henry Baker, whose backyard sermons led to the founding of Baker Chapel AME Church.
The original Fort Worth home — first remodeled in the 1930s — remains, tucked inside a larger facility built in 1946 by Black contractors using surplus materials from World War II.
“It was a two-story house and they built the (current) building around the house,” said Cookie Baker, now the funeral home’s vice president. “That was the easiest way to do it. Eventually, they added the chapel.”
A neighboring lot was purchased, adding 35 more feet to the property.
Baker Funeral Home added a community ambulance service in 1932, an insurance company in 1933 and opened a third funeral home in Mineral Wells under a partnership in 1935. In 1938, the Bakers started the Diamond Mutual Burial Association with a superintendent and five agents.
Cookie Baker said her father and grandfather were instrumental in advancing Black-owned businesses and services in the community.
Her grandfather organized Baker’s Mission on the funeral home property before purchasing land at 1050 E. Humboldt St. years later to open Baker Chapel AME Church, a Historic Southside landmark.
“He was preaching and his son was operating the funeral home,” she said.
Continued growth
When the Bakers started an ambulance service to serve Black residents, it was based in a small garage around the corner from the funeral home, on Crawford Street.
“The ambulance service, at that time, would pick up people who were sick, they would pick up people who were having babies, it was just anybody who had any kind of ailment, they would pick them up and take them to the hospital,” Cookie Baker said. “They had some real sharp-shooter drivers so people would come out and see them splashing down the street. It was a big thing.”
Cookie Baker recalls being trained to answer the phone for funeral business.
“I had to be very polite, take down all the information in detail and pass that along,” she said.
During World War II, three of Baker’s sons — James Jr., Joseph and Harold — served in the military.
“That was a big deal because they were working at the funeral home at the time,” Cookie Baker said.
That prompted the funeral home to start apprenticeships to train mortuary directors, she said.
The sons later opened People’s Burial Park, now part of New Trinity Cemetery off Northeast 28th Street.
Education, the importance of which was stressed by Cookie Baker’s grandfather, was a key to the family’s success.
“He believed everybody had to go to school. He stressed that his children all had to go to school or learn a trade,” she added.
James Baker Sr. urged community members to go into business for themselves as a means of self-reliance during segregation.
He also acquired property when he could.
“He would tell us, all this land from the corner of Crawford (Street) to the railroad belongs to the Bakers,” Cookie Baker said.
Community celebration
Dozens of the relatives, friends and community members celebrated the funeral home’s longevity at a party last weekend featuring presentations, games, food and music across the expansive property.
Three Fort Worth City Council members — Mia Hall, Deborah Peoples and Chris Nettles — attended the event to present a city proclamation recognizing the business.
Over a century, Baker Funeral Home had the privilege and responsibility of serving families “during life’s most difficult moments,” Hall said.
“One hundred years in business is remarkable but one hundred years of serving family and earning the trust of an entire community is truly something worth commemorating,” Hall said.
Peoples said the Bakers have been a vital part of the city for decades.
“This family, this funeral home represents not just what it does in the community, but the Bakers have entwined themselves in the very fabric of Fort Worth,” she said. “Anything good that happens has a Baker involved in it, so I am proud of this business and I am proud of my family.”
Although the neighborhood has evolved into the Medical District it is today, Nettles said, there has been one constant.
“What has remained the same is the foundation and the Baker’s Funeral Home have stood its ground through changes, through economic development, and that is the history of what we stand on today,” Nettles said. “We’re not just here to celebrate, we’re here to say thank you.”
They noted that Baker children and grandchildren still own and operate the funeral home today.
After James Nathan Baker Sr. died in 1970, his son Herbert ran the business for 18 years.
James Nathan Charles Baker, known as “Jimmy,” became president and owner in 1988, succeeding his uncle Herbert. Cookie Baker, also an owner, handles family services while Keosha Danielle Baker, a fourth-generation family member, is another owner and embalmer.
In her prayer at the event, Cookie Baker said she was so grateful for the business’s longevity.
“God has blessed us,” she said. “The Lord has brought us a long way. Amen.”
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
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