Hazel S. (Hellar) Baird

is honored with a Brick from Donna R. Eastwood.

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others."

Hazel Hellar's parents came from Germany as children; from them she learned love and the importance of giving. She attended Wichita University for two years, then in 1932 she married Wichita University chemistry graduate, Francis J. Baird. He was able to find work that first year but the salary barely covered basic needs. Francis was raised on a farm so they managed to purchase a "suburban" home, getting by with cows, chickens and a garden. In the days before air-conditioning, Hazel canned vegetables and fruits, sold eggs and butter and cream from the cow she sometimes milked herself. She sewed many feed-sack dresses for her daughter and herself and almost every shirt for her husband and son.

Hazel was a stay-at-home mom, and some parts of Ozzie and Harriet's T.V. life could have been patterned after the Baird household. Two clear differences were the hard work that Hazel did to contribute to the finances of the family and the part that church played in their lives. The church was their social life and their spiritual life as well.

After the children were gone from the home, Hazel again became a Wichita University student studying elementary education. She began substitute teaching in Wichita public schools and was called upon nearly every day of the school year because of her dedication to teaching excellence. True to her creative desires she also began sewing again and became an artist at china-painting, always sharing her love and her many talents with others.

All of Hazel's life was spent doing things for others. When her days became lonely she would bake a cake or cookies and deliver them to someone she knew to also be alone.

Hazel became a grandmother at age 65 and great-grandmother when she was 85. Wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother - Hazel taught her entire family the power of loving and giving.

September 11, 1998