Mintferd Nelson Baer
Marriages
Delores "Lola" Navaro Baer
in England
Burial Details
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 20 - August 24, 1989
In Memory of Mintferd Nelson BAER Sept. 15, 1921--July 29, 1989, by Iola M. KNUTH.
Mintferd Nelson BAER passed away July 29, 1989, and was buried Aug. 2 in California. Family members in Colorado and elsewhere were not notified of his death until the day after burial.
It is with sadness he was laid to rest without relatives and friends who loved him during his lifetime. We feel he would never have wanted it that way. He was always with us in times of tragedy and death in the past.
He could laugh, he could cry and he could lose his temper, but he was our brother and we loved him. We are sure he knew that.
Mintferd Nelson BAER was born Sept. 15, 1921, in Eagle, in his grandparents' home, the late Henry BAER. The two-story log house on Howard Street was built by his grandfather from logs from Fulford in 1902. It is now owned by Florence RANDALL.
Mintferd was the son of Edward Henry BAER and Rena Pearl Yost BAER. His grandparents, both the BAER and YOST families, were early pioneers and came to Colorado in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His grandfather YOST drove the stage from Leadville to Aspen during the time the H.A.W. TABORs traveled back and forth. They experienced stopping at the BRETT Ranch at Edwards and having lunch, even though Baby Doe sometimes would not leave the stage.
Mintferd was named after his maternal grandfather, Nelson YOST.
Mintferd started his school years in Dotsero in the little white schoolhouse where his mother went to school. The building was owned by the late Jim PHILLIPS, and still stands at Dotsero. The rest of his school years were spent on Sweetwater, except for one year as a freshman in high school at Leadville, spent with the THATCHER family.
His parents owned a ranch bought in 1920 from Carl STEWART and known as the BAER place. It was later sold to Henry STEPHENS.
Mintferd's mother rode from the ranch to Sweetwater Creek to attend her duties as postmistress early each morning at the Riland Post Office, when Mintferd was only 2 years of age. She would put him in the saddle in front of her or let him ride back ofher. He learned to ride a horse when just a mere baby and became a good horseman. He had a strong respect of animals, and always had a pet dog, kitten, sheep or rabbit.
During his school yers he loved his teachers. Marion FULLER, who lives in Kansas, was one who thought of Mintferd as a thoughtful and kind student. She wrote me, his sister, at Christmas just this last year about Mintferd crying when he had her car leave the road on Sweetwater and slide into a snowdrift and she was hurt. The enxt day he brought a little kitten to her as a gift, which she said they kept on their ranch for several years.
Another teacher, the late Chloe JACKSON, was special in his thoughts. He once said, "She is the best teacher. She can make the best candy gum drop cake that she brings to school for us kids."
Later his parents owned the Turret Creek Ranch above Sweetwater Lake, purchased from Frank DOLL, where his father, "Cub" BAER, ran a tourist trade guiding and packing hunters and fishermen to the Flat Tops and upper lakes. Mintferd learned to pack deer and elk down on the well-trained horses his father owned. Mintferd also worked at Sweetwater Lake and on the ranches.
In November 1941, just before Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Air Force. He got his basic training at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri and later at an air base at Valdosta, Ga., before being sent overseas. He served in England at Blackpool, and rose rapidly to sergeant. He was in charge of a squadron assigned to supplies for the aircraft. He did his work well.
While in England, he married Delores Navaro (Lola) in a military wedding. She came to the U.S. ahead of him, sailing from South Hampton in 1945. She was with his folks for a while before going to Denver. Mintferd was in the service until 1947. Their daughter, Maxine Maria, was born in Denver. Mintferd's father had passed away in 1945 while he was in England.
In 1947 they moved to New York, where Mintferd was employed by the airlines. While in New York the other two children, John and Michael, were born. The children had a German Nannie, a lady they called "Nanna," to take care of them.
Lola decided to take training in communications at the airlines. They decided in the late 1950s to move to California. Lola went ahead to her sister's home in California, where she was employed by Western Airlines. Mintferd packed their furniture and belongings and loaded his family of three into their Volkswagen and traveled to California.
He was employed by Western Airlines until an accident which almost caused him to lose a foot. He was in the hospital at Inglewood, Calif., for several months receiving plastic surgery to repair his foot. While he was there, Lola continued to work for the airlines.
It was later when he was able to use his foot. It took a lot of faith and grit to overcome his injury. He suffered a heart attack when he was 58 years of age, and had other complications which he overcame. A year later he ran a 5-kilometer race for cardiac patients at the Torrance Memorial Hospital, and finished in 39 minutes and 54 seconds.
His determination led him to employment by the Los Angeles School District as custodian o their school store. He was in charge of distribution to all schools in the district. With his experience with supplies in the service, he was very well liked and did his work well. He retired from the school district about three years ago. He attended a family reunion for the BAER family at Meeker about that time.
Mintferd did have a dream. After his mother passed away in 1973 and he gained possession of her little cabin and acre of ground on Sweetwater, he spent a couple months one summer with friends and his cousin, Gene TRUMP, and with the aid of his sister, Marion and husband Carl VETTER, furnishing him their camper to stay in, working on the cabin. He hoped that he could build a summer home adjacent to his mother's cabin, which he wanted to make into a historical building. But somehow those dreams fell through because of lack of funds and family obligations, so he decided to sell.
His health started failing and his doctor told him he had a disease called Lumas which was incurable. But the doctor was a good one and Mintferd felt he was being treated as well as he could be. He did not try coming or traveling to Colorado again.
In spit of all the stress and strain of illness and family obligations, he had, as he once said, seen much of the world and traveled to many countries during the time he was with the airlines.
He and his brother Earl, who passed away in 1973, were both World War II veterans. Both were overseas at the same time and met in England while there. Although Earl was in the Army with a fighter group in Germany, they were both sergeants and won medals and ribbons. Mintferd's were the good conduct ribbon, American ribbon, Victory medal and pre-pearl harbor ribbon. He was in the Air Force from November 1941 to march 1947.
Mintferd served under Lt. Gen. Carl Spaatz, who commanded strategic air forces over Europe.
Earl received the European, African and Middle East service medals, good conduct medal with clasp and the World War Victory medal. He was in the service from December 1941 until November 1945.
Why do we want to write all of this in this memorial? Because we were proud of those who gave so much for the land they loved the best. When we think of how they thought of home and family, and the risks they took, it is reflected in poems their mother received while they were away. They were in their mother's scrapbook.
Earl's was titled ... Mother: There's a dear little house inviting, in a dear little place I know: and a welcome is always waiting when to that house I go. For there lives the dearest lady, the sweetest I ever met' and today, tho I cannot visit, Dear Mother, I do not forget.
Mintferd's poem ... To the Best Mother In the World: Though we cannot be together, These troubled times to share; Remember this, Dear Mother, it is my constant prayer that God will guide and keep you free from every pain, till the time the war is over and we can meet again.
As this is written, thanks are expressed to all Mintferd's friends and family who in any way made his life happy.
He is survived by his brother, Cecil BAER and sister-in-law Lola and family of Grand Junction; a sister Marion VETTER and husband Carl and family of Carbondale; a sister, Iola KNUTH of Paonia; daughter-in-law, Sandy and grandsons of Austin, Texas; his 101-year-old aunt, Mattie RANDALL of the Heritage Care Center in Carbondale; many nieces, nephews,cousins and friends; besides his wife, children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
