BAKER — Jeannette Henderson said receiving a plaque for helping to preserve Baker's history was a little overwhelming.
State Sen. Greg Evers, County Commissioner Nathan Boyles and Okaloosa County School District Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson showed their appreciation for the 82-year-old historian on Sunday. Baker School heritage and hometown pride were on full display during an unveiling ceremony for a historical marker that Henderson's hard work helped make possible.
Henderson's more than two years of research were integral to formally crediting then-Baker High School as Okaloosa County's first state-accredited high school in 1923. Her service helped put Baker on the Florida Historical Marker Program's map, which recognizes 800 sites.
That's fitting to Evers, a Baker native.
"If you are from the Baker area, (Jeannette) can tell you who you are kin to," he said. "Jeannette and Charles are the core of the nucleus of the Baker community."
Family members of the school's first three-student graduating class of 1924 helped to unveil the historical marker.
Shirley H. Lundy, the daughter of Dewey Henderson, and her husband, Delano — both proud Baker graduates — traveled from Pensacola to help.
"It's a close-knitted family," Delano Lundy said, referring to Baker. "Everybody knew everybody and most of everybody is kin to somebody."
The marker will be displayed near the school's entrance this week, Henderson said, adding that her work is not finished.
She hopes to start a North Okaloosa history club and, possibly, bring more historical markers to the area.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Historical marker brings Baker pride