Helen Maxine Baker Shaffer

Helen Maxine Baker Shaffer passed into Gods loving care in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 3, 2011. She was 93 years old. A native of Meadville, she was born on August 18, 1917, the daughter of Frank Charles Baker and Alice Arlene Flickinger.
A musician, churchwoman, and homemaker, Helen studied piano with Miss Lillian Kaiser and entered the Pennsylvania Conservatory of Music while still attending Meadville High School. She studied ear training, harmony, theory, music history as well as piano (with Mrs. Grove) and was initiated into Mu Phi Epsilon music sorority. One year after graduating from high school, she graduated from the conservatory, performing music by Moskowski.
She attended Stone Methodist Church. Then at the invitation of her uncle Charles Flickinger, she became a member of Grace Methodist Church where she played the piano for the Epworth League and for Sunday School as her mother had done.
On July 13, 1939, she married John Richard Shaffer, a tool and die maker she had met at Grace church. After their marriage, the couple moved to Dayton, Ohio, where their two children were born and where John Richard earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. They were both active in church there. They moved again in 1949 to Columbus, Ohio, where their church activities continued at Trinity Methodist Church. She taught Sunday School and participated in the Womans Society of Christian Service Circle (later, the United Methodist Women), as well as Twig. She also participated in a bridge club and the garden club while there.
Before her marriage, Helen spent innumerable hours at the Meadville public library reading literature and poetry. She continued to read good books and listened to classical music, enjoying symphony concerts, throughout her life. She appreciated art and beauty in all things and passed her appreciation on to her children. Seeing Michelangelos 'Pieta' at the New York Worlds Fair in the 1960s was one of the highlights of her life.
She deeply enjoyed her association with the Mu Phi Epsilon Alumnae Chapter - something she missed when in 1967 they moved to Ewing, New Jersey. There, she adjusted to her new environment by working for a time at the Educational Testing Service, joining Pennington United Methodist Church, and making new friends among her neighbors as well.
Throughout her adult years, wherever she lived, she enjoyed crafts, from hat making to cake decorating to dcoupage, and created beautiful works of art with needlepoint, counted-cross-stitch, crochet, and quilting. Doing needlework was something she shared especially with her mother and later with her daughter-in-law Patricia. She created over 100 Hug-a-Bears for hospitalized children as a member of the Telephone Pioneers and knitted hats for newborns. She enjoyed gardening and had a knack for growing African violets. Her travels to Switzerland and Hawaii were bright memories for her. The family trip to the Far West in the early 1950s, including her mother and father, remained a highlight of her travels. Her fathers laughter after his face-to-face encounter with a brown bear was a favorite family story.
She had a gift for friendship and was well-loved for her compassion, sympathy, and understanding. Helen had a deeply spiritual nature, evident to her family and friends on whom she lavished her care and compassion. She always found time to send a card or say a word or send a plate of cookies to someone who was having a difficult time or celebrating a special occasion. She shared their joys as well as their disappointments and sorrows.
Helen and Richard moved to Lakeland, Florida, in 1996, to be near her sister Laura Jean and her husband Charles Hunt. She continued her church attendance there and made friends with her neighbors in Highland Fairways. She met various health challenges with abiding faith and overcame cancer that her doctors thought would be fatal. Her determination and strong will power brought her through. In 2005, although still in good health, in the face of advancing age, Helen and Richard moved near their son in Chattanooga, where she had a stroke the following year from which she made a remarkable recovery. She made friends in her new home and continued her concern for others, even after her stroke and various falls.
A woman of strong will and deep faith, Helens loving character carried her through lifes disappointments as well as its joys and enabled her to remain cheerful and faithful to the spirit within her until the very end. She was a beautiful human being who was deeply loved by all who knew her. She will be greatly missed.
She is survived by her husband, John Richard Shaffer, her children, Karl Richard Shaffer (m. Patricia Lambert) of Chattanooga and Karen Alice Shaffer of Brevard, NC, her grandchild, William Karl Alexander Shaffer (m. Cristine Hubatka) of Orange, Texas, and her great granddaughters, Heidi and Allie. She is also survived by her brother-in-law, Charles Hunt of Lakeland, Florida, and by many loving nieces, nephews, and cousins. She was pre-deceased by her siblings Roy Lawrence Baker, Bernice Mae Baker Locke, and Laura Jean Baker Hunt.
A Memorial Service will be conducted at Stone United Methodist Church, Meadville, PA, at 11:00 AM on Saturday, May 14th,2011, with Pastor John V. Spahr, Sr. officiating.
Interment will take place in Greendale Cemetery, West Mead Twp.
Arrangements are under the direction of Stephen P. Mizner Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Inc., 404 Chestnut St., Meadville, PA 16335.
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