Allison Baker

Head Up, Wings Out – Allison Baker Kept Going

Allison Baker, who died on Thursday, August 8, 2024, was many things to many people, but to hear her describe a hummingbird, you couldn't help but see a self-portrait: "They seem so brave and so tiny. They're fast, faster than cheetahs. They can fly backwards! They're just amazing."

Tiny and fast, Allison ran 15 marathons and countless sub-marathon races including two victories at the Austin Cinco de Mayo race — one of which coincided with her engagement to her husband of 34 years, Steve Baker. She was born in Austin, TX, on June 29, 1959, to Katherine and R. Temple Dickson III, a longtime Democratic state legislator representing rural West Texas communities. She grew up in Sweetwater, about 30 minutes from the family cattle ranch in Nolan County and graduated as Salutatorian from Sweetwater High School—where girls track had just started—in 1977. While a student at the Plan II honors program at the University of Texas at Austin, she worked as a Capitol Tour Guide, a State Senate Messenger and as the Senate State Affairs Committee Clerk working with Senator Ray Farabee. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1981, she entered UT Law School. The summer after her first year of law school, she got her pilot's license. She often flew her sisters and a cat, "Pearly," back and forth from Austin to Sweetwater, which was a feat because, she said, "I'm very allergic to cats."

Immediately following law school graduation in 1984—as the seventh-generation attorney in the Temple Dickson family—her great-grandmother sent her to cooking school in France and set her on a lifelong path of cooking and baking. Back stateside, she worked as an attorney with Vinson & Elkins in Houston and Austin where she was "the only girl" running on the firm's relay team in Houston. "We won every year. It was so fun!" She ran every day while working seven days a week as an attorney. "It was what we did then." She often commented that in every place she worked and in all aspects of her life she had many great experiences. "Every step of the way I had mentors, people I learned from. Wow, I was so lucky."

When Governor Ann Richards was elected, she hired Allison as Environmental Legal Counsel for her administration.

As remarkable as her career was, Allison said her four children, Temple, Treeman, Katherine and Cole, her husband Steve, her parents, Kathy and the late Temple Dickson, her sisters, Angie Dickson (Bobby Bollas), Priscilla Primavera (Paul) and Maria Parigi (Frank), her brother-in-law, Brian Baker (Ilona), her nine nieces and nephews and her friends were her dearest treasures. "I'm really lucky to have so many friends in different parts of my life," she said.

She left her law practice in 1994 to focus on her family. Her children inherited her energy, curiosity, and, of course, love of athletics, running and reading. How could they not? She ran every day of her first pregnancy, including running the Cap 10K just 10 days before Temple, her oldest, was born. In 2005, she became a certified yoga and Yoga Kids instructor, which led her to start an after-school yoga program at St. Andrew's Lower School. Her children competed in sports, in chess and in the classroom, while she was a fixture in the stands, on the sidelines and in the coaches' offices. Allison volunteered generously and prolifically, from chaperoning debate club tournaments to fundraising for Capital Campaigns and everything in between. She was honored by receiving the Loyal Forever award at Austin High School and a bench with the moniker "Baseball and Butterflies" was dedicated to her in 2023 at the Austin High Baseball Garden, a registered Monarch Butterfly migration Waystation.

In 2008 the Bakers started the nonprofit Cattlemen Care and involved the whole family as well as hundreds of student volunteers from St. Andrews School and Austin High School. They prepared and delivered over 100 tons of beef, much of it raised naturally on the Baker family ranch, to Austin nonprofits including Settlement Home, Boys and Girls Clubs (where she was named a RecognizeGood "Legend" in 2014), Posada Esperanza, Trinity Center and Caritas of Austin.

Diagnosed with Stage IVb ovarian cancer in late 2018 and given months to live, Allison embodied her fabled hummingbird and coined her mantra: "Head up, wings out. Keep ["effing"] going!" And boy did she! Over 200 rounds of chemo and radiation may have slowed her at times, but in 2020 she celebrated the graduations of three of her children, Cole (MIT), Katherine (University of Virginia) and Treeman (UT Law). In 2022, she traveled to New York to cheer on her twins Cole and Katherine in the NYC Marathon where they raised $26,000 for ovarian cancer research. She attended Longhorn football games and, with her family of avid Astros fans, cheered on the World Series Champions.

Her tiny frame seemed to be in constant motion, spreading goodness among her friends and family like the pollinator a hummingbird is known to be. She kept not one but four or five sets of sourdough starters at the ready for baking bread to give to neighbors and friends and hosted well-attended weekly Mahjong games, requiring multiple tables in her colorful porch-turned-game room. Even she marvels at her life: "Look at all the amazing things I've been able to do. I'm so lucky! Who gets diagnosed and then gets to live that long?"

Native cultures from Aztecs to Pueblos to Caribbean folklore recognized in hummingbirds all the attributes necessary to be a good warrior. The Inca believe the hummingbird was a messenger of heaven, the sign that someone who died made it to the other side.

Allison Baker was an amazing warrior and wore a bracelet engraved with her mantra and images of hummingbirds. Allison never lost her battle to cancer. She did not die while suffering in bed or in hospice care. After beating back cancer time and time again, she was struck by a vehicle and died instantly and painlessly. She died on one of her beloved neighborhood walks with Steve and their dog, Kanga, on a beautiful Thursday morning having won all four Mahjong games the night before.

A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, August 28th at 1:30 pm at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. The service will also be live-streamed on the Good Shepherd website (https://gsaustin.org/). In lieu of flowers, Allison asked that donations be made to The Allison Baker Endowed Scholarship at the University of Texas for undergraduate students majoring in Biochemistry, The Allison Baker Endowed Scholarship in Medicine at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin and The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. Gifts to the scholarship funds can be made online at https://give.utexas.edu/ by searching for "Allison Baker Scholarship" or by mailing a check to: University of Texas at Austin, University Development Office, 2901 North IH-35, Suite 4.100, Austin, Texas 78722. Please reference the specific scholarship fund on the check. Gifts to the Episcopal Church can be made online at https://gsaustin.org/.

The family wishes to thank so many people who supported and loved us through her illness including her fabulous medical team: Dr. Helen Eshed, Dr. Robert Coleman, Dr. Marco Uribe, Dr. David Pohl, Dr. Declan Fleming, Dr. Al Pisani and the staff at Texas Oncology and MD Anderson Cancer Center.