Mary Howe Baker

WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT

Mary Howe Baker (1900 – 1965)

Harvard Observatory women astronomical computers

39 Cape Bial Lane, Westport Point

Mary Howe, the daughter of Louis McHenry Howe and Grace Hartley, was born in Fall River, Ma. on June 4, 1900.  Her parents were close friends with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. Mr. Howe was said to have been the main force in getting Mr. Roosevelt to the presidency and in helping Eleanor overcome her shyness.   When Mary’s father died in 1936, the President lowered the flag at the White House to half-mast. Mary was at the center of much political life as a child.

The Howe family had a summer cottage at Horseneck Beach.  After Roosevelt became unable to walk, he believed the hot sand and swimming in the sea would be helpful to his paralysis. Roosevelt stayed at their cottage.

Mary studied astronomy at Vassar College. She worked at the Harvard College Observatory from 1907 to 1909, as one of the women astronomical computers.

Observatory leadership at the time believed that women possessed special “feminine” qualities helpful for systematic, repetitive, precision work. It was common practice for employers to pay women less than men based on the widespread belief that men needed to support families with their wages.

 She was an assistant at Lick Observatory, where it seems she met her future husband, Dr. Robert Baker, professor of astronomy at the University of Illinois. His wife died in 1925 and in 1926 he married Mary Howe who was 17 years younger.  She did not seem to be employed after her marriage.  They lived most of their married life in Urbana, Ill. They had one son, Robert Baker, Jr. (1927-1983).  His godparents were President Franklin and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.  Mary and Robert divorced sometime after 1950. 

A deed from her son shows Mary Howe Baker as unmarried in 1963, and both her son and Mary were living in Westport.  Mary died in 1965 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River.