By By ANNA M. LEE Managing Editor
The Riverview community lost one of its dedicated servants this week, with the death of former mayor Dorothy James Mancil Baker.
Baker's dedication to the community of Riverview is evidenced in the motto that Dixon says she lived by: "I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and it is my privilege to do for it whatsoever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' for me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
Baker died Thursday, May 20 at the age of 87 in a local hospital after an extended illness.
Baker was born in Falco, Ala. and moved to Brewton in 1946. She moved to Riverview in 1950 and eventually served as mayor there from 1980 to 1995.
Before her illness, Baker was an active member of Pilgrim's Chapel Pentecostal Holiness Church. She also had a love for antique collecting, crafts and working in her yard. Above all, she was hard-working and dedicated and Dixon says that's what her family respected most about her.
Baker was survived by her husband, William Samuel Baker of Brewton; two sons, Reginald Mancil of Brewton and L.C. Mancil of Ozark; one daughter, Jane Dixon of Brewton; one sister, Hazel Langford of Andalusia; seven grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Saturday, May 22 at Williams Memorial Funeral Home Chapel, with burial at Green Acres Memorial Gardens. Standard will profile those students in a later issue.