Jerry Witters of Kirkland, Wash., and his parents, Frank and Wilma Witters of Bentonville, recently brought a painting to the Bella Vista Historical Museum. Jerry inherited it after the death of his aunt Wilma's sister, Virginia Baker, this past September. He offered it to the museum on a long-term loan basis. Virginia's mother-in-law, Elsie Baker, painted it in the 1960s from a photograph that was taken by Elsie and Les Baker's son, Carl, in the late 1940s.
Virginia was married to Elsie and Les Baker's other son, Doug Baker, who was a pilot and owned the plane shown. In the painting, Doug is standing on the wing of the plane, and his dad, Les, is standing on the ground.
Jerry Witters wrote the following to accompany the loan of the painting: "The story I was told as a young boy was that the three of them, my uncle Doug, his brother Carl and their dad Les had gone out to where they had some cattle ... a large flat pasture area, I am guessing, east of their house that was on Highway 71. They were there to brand some of their cattle and, after rounding up the ones they were going to brand, they realized that they had forgotten to bring the branding irons along with them. My uncle had evidently flown out in his plane, so he flew back to the house to get the branding irons. He had just flown back and landed and was getting out of the plane with the branding irons when his brother Carl snapped the picture.
"As a young boy growing up, I remember when we would go visit my aunt and uncle in the Denver area where they later moved; this painting was always hanging on the wall in my Uncle Doug's office. I was always so impressed with it that I told my uncle that someday I would really like to have that painting. Now that I do have it, I wanted (to) make sure that I could share it with others, along with some of my family's history there in the Bella Vista, Arkansas area. It is my joy and great pleasure to loan this painting from my personal collection to the Bella Vista Historical Museum."
Les and Elsie Baker were living in the little farmhouse that faces Highway 71 toward the north end of Bella Vista when their son Doug married Virginia at the house in 1946. They had a corral just north of the house. After their son's marriage, Les and Elsie moved to live in the back of the State Line Store they owned at the Missouri state line and started building a brick home next door to the farmhouse, on the site of the corral, in the 1947-48 timeframe. Their son Carl and his wife Jane ran the motel, known as the Swan Lake Motel, across the highway from the brick home (the circular driveway that ran in front of the motel is still visible). Doug kept his plane in the valley that is now the north end of the Country Club golf course.
In 1951, Les and Elsie Baker sold their farm. They eventually moved out of state to Colorado and Texas. Les died in 1968 and Elsie died in 1984; they are buried in Denver. Doug died in 2017 and his wife Virginia died in 2020; they are buried at Springfield, Mo.
The brick house and old farmhouse were part of the first purchase John Cooper Sr. made in 1962 when he came to northwest Arkansas to start Bella Vista Village. The house was the residence of the George Billingsley family for about a decade, starting in 1965, after which John Cooper Jr. and his family moved there. It was owned by Cooper Communities until John Cooper Jr. bought it in 1994. He and his wife Pat made several additions, including a swimming pool, tennis courts, and carport. Following John Jr.'s death in 2013, Pat Cooper continued to maintain it as her residence until she sold it in 2020.