Raymond T. Baker

Raymond T. Baker and Anthony de Francisci inspecting model of new silver dollar. Raymond Thomas Baker (November 22, 1878 – April 28, 1935) His brother Cleve Baker served as the Nevada Attorney General.

He was educated at the University of Nevada, Reno, then at Stanford University.

Career After college, Baker became involved in gold mining, being one of the first investors active in Rawhide, Nevada.

In 1915, Baker traveled to Russia to become confidential secretary to George T. Marye, Jr., the United States Ambassador to Russia. While in the diplomatic service, "he carried out one of the longest messenger trips on record, coming to Washington with dispatches from Ambassador Marye by way of Finland and England, and then returning, after a two or three days' stop at the capital, to Petrograd by way of California and Siberia.

During the 1926 Senate elections, Baker sought election as United States Senator from Nevada on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated by the Republican incumbent, Tasker Oddie.

Personal life On June 12, 1918, he married Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt (1886–1960) at Homewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Isaac Edward Emerson (the "Bromo-Seltzer King") was the widow of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who died aboard the RMS Lusitania.

Gloria Mary Baker (1920–1975), who married Henry Junkins Topping (1914–1968) in 1938. They divorced and she married Edward Harrison Alexander (1902–1978) in 1944. They also divorced and she married Sidney Taylor (1934–2004) in 1966.

After their divorce, Margaret remarried to Charles Minot Amory in October 1928. On December 4, 1928, he married a second time, to Delphine (née Dodge) Cromwell (1899–1943), daughter of Anna Thompson Dodge and Horace Elgin Dodge, one of the two co-founders of the Dodge Motor Company. Delphine was the ex-wife of James H. R. Cromwell, who married Doris Duke in 1935.

Baker died of coronary thrombosis on April 28, 1935, In Washington, DC approximately three months after suffering a heart attack. He was cremated, and his ashes interred with his family at Mountain View Cemetery, in Oakland, California. After his death, his widow remarried to Timothy Godde in August 1935.