MARGIE BAKER

Jazz singer Margie Baker pursued her musical career part-time for many years while maintaining a full-time job in the San Francisco school district and raising a family. She was born in Center, TX, in about 1937. During World War II, she moved with her mother to San Francisco, where her mother worked as a riveter in the shipbuilding industry. At 15, she graduated from high school and went to the University of California at Berkeley on a scholarship, transferring after two years to San Francisco State University, where she got her bachelor's degree in education. She taught elementary school while taking night classes to get her master's and, later, Ph.D. degree. She spent decades working in the administration of the San Francisco school district, ultimately as Director of Compensatory Education, in charge of disbursing federal funds to help students at risk, and remained at the job until her retirement. Meanwhile, Baker read more...