Birth Date: 09/26/1929
Deceased Date: 08/24/2024
Eva Mae Pittman Baker of Smithfield, N.C. died on Saturday August 24, 2024 after a period of declining health. The family will receive visitors from 3:00 to 4:00 PM at Centenary UMC on Tuesday August 27, 2024. A funeral service will follow the visitation on Tuesday at 4:00 PM.
Eva was born September 26, 1929, at Lucama in Wilson County to William Henry Pittman and Mattie Crocker Pittman. Her father died when she was five, and her mother was not able to support her large family in the depths of the Depression. Eva and a brother and sister went to live at the Methodist Orphanage in Raleigh. There they learned valuable life lessons and a strong work ethic. Eva also learned good sportsmanship through playing basketball and learning to swim and dive.
After graduation from the orphanage’s high school, she moved to Smithfield to live with her mother. She attended Hardbarger Business College in Raleigh. She was first employed by Roger A. Smith in his insurance office. While working there, she met her future husband, Kenneth Bryan Baker, a funeral director at Underwood Funeral Home. She eventually joined the staff of the funeral home as bookkeeper for the Burial Association.
Kenneth and Eva were married December 17, 1949 in Centenary United Methodist Church in Smithfield. She continued to work at the funeral home until their first daughter, Barbara, was born. She decided to stay home and raise her family, which grew to include daughters Margaret, Virginia, and Emily. She was a loving mother who instilled in her daughters the values she learned at the Orphanage. She was also a wonderful cook who shared her love of cooking with her girls. Eva returned to work at the funeral home once her daughters were in school and continued to work there until she and Kenneth retired and sold the business in 2000.
Eva loved music and greatly enjoyed her time singing with the Centenary United Methodist Church Choir, which she joined in 1947. She sang with them until 2019, with only a few breaks when her daughters were born.
Eva was also a founding member of the Johnston County Choral Society. She sang with the group for 26 years and served as its president twice. She was president when the group sang at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., when Ronald Reagan was president. She also sang with the group at Carnegie Hall in New York in a performance directed by John Rutter.
Eva was also a long-time member of the Aeolian Music Club and served as its president twice. She was a member of the Methodist Orphanage Alumni Association and attended and sang in the choir at many of their reunions which were held each Easter.
Eva was preceded in death by Kenneth, who died in 2018, and by brothers Harvey Smith Pittman, William H. Pittman, Arthur B. Davis and James E. Davis; and sisters Neta Davis Forbes and Esther Davis Mulford. She is survived by daughters, Barbara B. Elliott (David) of Frankford, WV; Margaret Baker Krakover (Neal) of Hillsboro, WV; Virginia B. Cooper (Jeff) of Cary, N.C.; and Emily B. Everett (Eugene) of Cary. She also is survived by grandchildren Lauryn Johnson (Jimmy), Bryan Ulma, Matthew Krakover (Suzanne) and Sandra Winfrey (Brad); great grandson, Lincoln Johnson; sister, Doris Jean McCullers; and many nephews and nieces.
The family asks that memorial contributions be made to Centenary United Methodist Church, 140 East Market Street, Smithfield, NC 27577.
Online condolences may be expressed to the family at Parrishfh.com
