Mary Lou Baker

August 22, 1921 - October 8, 2017

Mary Lou Baker 1921 - 2017 “Fore! Playing through to the 19th hole, and coming out a winner!” Mary Lou Thomson Baker, born Aug. 22, 1921, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Thomas Airston and Bertha Jones Thomson, passed peacefully away on Oct. 8, 2017, of natural causes. Some of Lou’s earliest memories were of collecting old golf balls and hitting them into a neighbor’s empty field. Who knew that this young girl would one day be one of Utah’s best young players? In the 40’s and 50’s, she won the Women’s State Amateur title 6 times as well as other major tournament events throughout Utah. She shared her love of the game through her professional teaching and even helped start a girl’s junior golf program. In 2004, she was inducted into the Utah Golf Hall of Fame, and in 2007, the Mary Lou Baker Women’s Open was created in her honor. She married Max Baker, a salesman for Ben Hogan and Utah’s first “artist” golf scoreboard writer, in 1942. They were blessed with 2 sons. After Max died, she served a mission in Florida for the L.D.S. Church. Her church service included YW Athletics Coach, visiting teacher, and Relief Society President. Following her mission, she married Parley Perry “Pat” Holton, who passed away in 1998. She is survived by her brother, Grant Thomson of Corvallis, OR; 2 sons, Richard Max (Julie) Baker of Orem, UT, and Thomas Lance (Lori) Baker of SLC, UT; 7 grandchildren, and 21 great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, October 14, 2017, at 11:00 a.m. in the Highland View Ward, Canyon Rim Stake Center, 3051 S. 2900 E., SLC, UT. A viewing will be held prior to the services where friends and family may call beginning at 9:30 a.m. Interment to follow in the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Cemetery under the direction of Premier Funeral Services. The family would like to thank the Beehive Home of Provo and her hospice caregivers for their loving and professional care of Mary Lou. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Huntsman Cancer Center. They saved her life.