Kristina Inez Baker, 43, of Burns, passed away Sept. 10 of heart failure.

Kristina was born Nov. 30, 1974, in La Grande to Judy Denning of Cove and Jim Park of Walla Walla, Wash. She was raised in Cove and lived there most of her life. She married Joeseph Miller on March 30, 1997, and they had one child, Kirstin Miller. She later married Harold Baker on Sept. 23, 2006. They had four children together, Gracie, Tresa, Madison and Alysa.

Kristina was in the 4-H program for nine years.  She showed dairy cows and horses. She qualified for the Oregon State Fair six years in a row. She loved the outdoors and worked for a pack station for several years in Union, packing hunters into the Eagle Cap Mountains. Kristina loved doing ranching work. She and Harold worked together on a ranch in Cove and then later moved to Burns.  She went to AI school and learned to AI cows and preg test them. She also started her nursing degree, but her life got busy with four little girls, and she wasn’t able to finish. She also received an EMT certificate.

Kristina was an avid horse trainer. She and her girls loved to train wild mustangs. She started riding and training racehorses when she was in her 20s. She rode a lot for Jim and Sue Gilmore, and she also ponied racehorses for the fair. Riding horses was her passion. She has ridden several disciplines, which have included western, English, dressage, jumping, and horse driving. When she was younger, she loved spending time riding horses with her sister, Misty Morgan. Kristina was known for hooking a horse up to a garden cart or wagon and convincing her sister to get in and ride and reassured her everything would be fine, which usually ended up in a runaway and her sister baling.

Kristina loved helping others, and if anyone needed cows hauled to the sale, cows gathered, fences fixed, cows AI’ed or preg tested she would drop everything and go and help. She loved to go to brandings. She was very active with her girls, taking them to horse shows, helping them train wild mustangs, and helping them with their animals for fair. She was the leader for the girls’ horse and cow 4-H club. Over the last year or so, she was teaching her daughters how to jump horses. She loved to rescue sick or abused animals and would bring them back to health. She helped save a few wild mustang babies for the BLM.

Kristina loved spending the holidays with family and friends. She loved to entertain, making a big meal with a lot of goodies. Her very favorite thing was taking all the girls to the mountains to get a Christmas tree.

As like most of us, Kristina was gifted with a humble upbringing and lifestyle, which played a profound role in the person that she became.

Kristina spent much of her adult life trying to live up to the lofty standards of those she respected, such as becoming the ideal horseman and ranch hand. She often dreamed of affording the best horses for her and her daughters to compete on or more opportunities to hone her skills in the branding pen. Ultimately, she would conclude that she did the best she could do with the time and resources she had.

What Kristina did not appreciate was the rare and intangible qualities she did possess. She had grit and determination that enabled her to achieve many of her life goals. When she fell short, her humility and resiliency allowed her to “get back on the horse”.

Kristina was as caring of a person as was ever created and the kind of friend who comes around once in a lifetime. She will be dearly missed.

Kristina is survived by her husband, Harold; daughters, Kirstin, 20, Gracie, 11, Tresa, 9, Madison, 6, and Alysa, 4; mother, Judy Denning of Cove; father, Jim Park of Walla Walla, Wash.; sister, Misty Morgan of Kalispell, Mont.; half-brother, Erving Park of Walla Walla; niece, Abigail Morgan; nephew, Stephen Morgan; uncles, aunts, and several cousins.

She was preceded in death by her grandparents, Keith and Inez Denning; uncle, Johnny Denning; cousins, Michael and Janice Denning; and nephew, Austin Morgan.

Her funeral was held Sept. 15 at Chad and Char Bradach’s home, and she was buried in Drewsey.

Memorial contributions may be made at Umpqua Bank in Burns. Make checks out to Harold Baker. LaFollette’s Chapel was in charge of funeral arrangements.