Mary “Rusty” Fidalis (Mcgaw) Baker Obituary (2025)

Family & Friends, It is with a heavy heart that I share with you the news of my grandmother's passing. Mary "Rusty" Fidalis (McGaw) Baker passed away, just 5 days after her 90th birthday, on Friday, February 14, 2025, in Crossville, Tennessee. My grandmother was a very special woman. Being all of 5'1", she once told me to "always remember that dynamite comes in small packages!" She ran a successful business, Rusty's Beauty Salon, for over 20 years. She was gifted at gardening and interior decorating which was always apparent when visiting her beautiful home. She had many friends in Michigan, Florida, and Tennessee with whom she loved to go to the movies and out for a meal. She was a source of strength and knowledge for many attendees at her Al-Anon meetings, which she attended for several decades. She loved reading a good book or playing cards, dominos, or scrabble (she had an amazing vocabulary and almost always won!). She loved her family and was affectionately known as GG (great grandmom) for the last 23 years. She was married to the love of her life, my grandfather (a.k.a. Daddy Bud), George "Bud" Lloyd Baker, for nearly 5 decades at the time of his passing in 2001. She treasured her grandchildren and great grandchildren, nieces and nephews, cousins, daughter-in-law and of course her one and only son, my dad, Ronald Lynn Baker. We were blessed to have so many years with her and, for those of us living far away, to be able to visit frequently for the last decade. It is truly fitting that she left us on Valentine's Day, as she was an avid collector and lover of angels. She was the matriarch of our little family; we will always love her and miss her dearly.