The Mass of the Resurrection for Isaias Baca, 87, of Portales will be celebrated at 10:00 AM, Tues., June 6, 2017 at St. Helen Catholic Church by Fr. Charles Ugochukwu. Burial will follow in the Portales Cemetery with Armando Baca, II, Abel Baca, Matthew Baca, Jake Baca, Becky Lankford and Trina Anderson serving as pallbearers. All of his great-grandchildren will be honorary pallbearers.
Isaias Baca, known to family and friends as Ike, was born Mar. 26, 1930 in Encino, to the home of Petrita (Ortega) and Jose Claudio Baca, and died at his home in Portales on June 2, 2017. The family first came to do field work in the Floyd area when Ike was a small boy. They went back and forth between this area and Encino for several years, but finally settled in Portales in the mid 1940’s. Ike worked as a farm laborer until he went to work at Price’s Creamery in the early 1950’s. From 1953 to 1955, he served his country in the Army in Korea. When he returned he worked in construction and took night classes in mechanics on the GI Bill. He worked for several years at Eastern New Mexico University as a custodian and then for New Mexico Gas Co. He began his last job with the State Highway Dept. in about 1979 maintaining the roadside park and rest area between Portales and Clovis. He retired in 1992. Since then he spent most of his time tinkering and building various things to improve his home. He also bought and sold several cars. Ike was a member of St. Helen Catholic Church.
He is survived by Leonela, his wife of nearly 62 years of their home; four sons and two daughters-in-law, Max Baca and Armando Baca both of Portales, Marcos and Terri Baca of Tucumcari and Timoteo and Carole Baca of Wichita, KS; a daughter, Delores Baca and her companion, Jose Eloy Lopez, Jr. of Clovis; seven grandchildren, Becky Lankford, Patrick Burdine, Armando Baca, II, Trina Anderson, Abel Baca, Jacob Baca and Matthew Baca; 11 great-grandchildren; a brother, Saturnino “Nino” Baca of Portales and a sister, Adelina “Nina” Cordova of Portales. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, Arturo and Juan Baca, three sisters, Barbara Duarte, Julia Bachicha and Socorro Tapia, three grandchildren, Marcos Leandro Baca, Isabel Alorah Baca-Lopez and Baby Baca-Lopez, and by a daughter, Monica Sylvia Baca.