Remembering When
by
Jerry Person
Huntington Beach City Historian
Dedicated to the people of Huntington Beach
Remembering Judge Celia Young Baker
"Judge not least ye be judged," a familiar biblical passage in the Bible and this week we're going travel back in time and remember someone who did judge people. A time when a female judge was a rarity, a time when nearly all judges were male and so this week we will remember Judge Celia Young Baker.
It was on a cold gray day in Corning, New York that our future judge was born on November 19, 1912. It was during her high school years that Baker became interested in the workings of law and the justice system. So much so that Baker would attended the University of Buffalo and later continued her studies at George Washington University where she majored in Law. She would then go to work as a law clerk for a legal firm in New York.
During World War II, Baker enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and served as an ensign in the Waves and it was also the time that she married her first husband, Carl Young, a Ferry Command pilot. When the war ended, Carl and Celia had their first child, Carol, born in 1945 and a year later a second girl, Linda, came along.
It was also the time that Carl was transfered to Long Beach and also bringing along his family.
Still interested in law, but without a law degree to practice here, Baker took the California bar exam and passed in 1947. Baker then set up a law practice here and in 1948 was appointed a judge of the Huntington Beach City Court where she metered out punishment equally to relatives and strangers alike. Continuing her law practice, Baker ran for election for a judgeship in the Justice Court and won in 1953. Two years later Carl died in 1955 and Baker was left alone to raise her two daughters.
Orange County's population by the 1950's increased dramatically and there became a need to establish a Municipal Court system and Baker was there to become Huntington Beach's only municipal judge in 1959. As judge, Baker handled traffic and minor offenses in which many of our locals would nervously stand before her bar of justice. Judge Celia Young Baker retired from the bench in 1973.
Celia married a second time to a Huntington Beach resident, George Baker and from 1972 to 1990, the Bakers lived in the posh Sea Cliff development on Little Harbor Drive and then would later move to Manifesto Circle in Huntington Beach.
Meanwhile, her daughter Carol Marshall had opened a decorator and gift store in Truckee, California called La Galleria and her mother Celia would became a part owner of that business.
In late 1992, Baker moved up to Santa Rosa where she passed away in 1993, leaving a legacy of justice for today's judges to follow.