Natalie Jane Krentz Baker, 91, died Friday, September 18, 2009 at the Benjamin Borden Health Center of Kendal at Lexington in Lexington, Virginia.

She was born December 6, 1917 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the daughter of George Washington Krentz and Natalie Alice (Broff) Krentz. After her granduation from Lancaster High School she worked for the Dupont Company in Wilmington, Delaware.

She married Donald Whitelaw Baker at the Army Air Base Chapel in Salina, Kansas in 1945. They eventually moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he taught at Wabash College. Their cocktail parties were legendary.

In 1987 they retired to their longtime vacation home in Brewster, Massachusetts. Natalie worked as a Friday volunteer at Our Lady of the Cape Thrift Shop from 1978 until 2003, when she moved to Virginia to live near her daughter. Her husband died in 2002.

She is survived by two daughters: Pamela J. Turnbull of Ipswich, Massachusetts and Alison Baker Rilling of Lexington, Virginia; three grandchildren; and a brother, George R. Krentz of Afton, Pennsylvania.

There will be no service. Memorial donations may be made to the Rockbridge Area Hospice, P. O. Box 948, Lexington, VA. 24450 or to the public library of your choice.

The Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory, Lexington, Virginia, is handling the arrangements.