Eleanor D. Baker, 95

Eleanor Dickinson Baker, who was born in Third House, one of three colonial-era buildings on Montauk, died on May 1 at Southampton Hospital. She was 95 and had fallen two weeks earlier.

One of five children, Mrs. Baker was born on Dec. 21, 1918, to Frank Dickinson and the former Loretta Kelly. She grew up in the hamlet, attending the Montauk School and graduating from East Hampton High School.

“She loved the beach, even then,” her brother Frank Dickinson of East Hampton said yesterday. While he and her other brothers rode horses when they were young, his sister spent as much time as she could at the beach, swimming. She attended Skidmore College, then transferred to the Katharine Gibbs School of New York, where she obtained an associate’s degree.

Living in the city for a time, she worked at Woodhouse Publishing. When she returned to Montauk, she and her childhood sweetheart, David C. Baker of East Hampton, a lifeguard at Hither Hills, were reunited. They were married on Nov. 27, 1941. Mr. Baker became a dentist with a long practice in East Hampton. He died in 2002.

In Montauk, Mrs. Baker worked as a hostess at Gurney’s Inn, and then, in East Hampton, worked for E.T. Dayton Insurance. The couple lived on David’s Lane in the village. Mrs. Baker and her friends loved Wiborg’s Beach, where they gathered on Sundays to swim and attack The New York Times crossword puzzle. Besides crossword puzzles, Mrs. Baker was a devotee of bridge. She also enjoyed genealogy and could reel off the lineage of local families. She and Dr. Baker traveled extensively, across this country and in Europe.

Mrs. Baker is survived by her brother Frank Dickinson. Her other brothers, Jack and Phineas Dickinson, and a half-sister, Sarah Hicks, died before her.

She also is survived by her sons, David C. Baker Jr. of Frederick, Md., and Dickinson Baker of Shelter Island, as well as four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and a friend who was a dedicated caregiver for 16 years, Sunoko Minimora of East Hampton.

The family is planning a private service this summer.

Donations in Mrs. Baker’s memory were suggested to Southampton Hospital, 3 North, 240 Meeting House Lane, Southampton 11968, Attention Steven Bernstein.