Dee Baber, a well known figure in the licensed liquor and gaming business, passed away Sunday, Nov. 5 at her home in Anaconda. Dee had been suffering with cancer. It was her desire that no services be conducted.
She last managed the Best Bet Casino in Helena where she was well thought of by her employers, employees and customers, as well as this editor.
In a Paul Vang-bylined story in the March, 2005 edition of the Montana Tavern Times, Dee Baber said, "I poured my first beer at age 10. I poured beer, even though I couldn't drink it. I only made 25¢ an hour, and put in eight hour days--I thought it was big money back then. Heck, that was big money, it was hard times."
Dee told the Times she went with her parents on a summer vacation trip through Montana in 1961 and it was love at first sight.
"I absolutely fell in love with Montana," she said, but first put in a stint working for defense contractors building Minuteman missile silos in North Dakota, worked for a company operating off-shore oil drilling rigs in California, then worked five years as a customer service representative for General Telephone.
The story said she meanwhile met a handsome young veteran just returned from Vietnam, Robert Baber, III, and that they were "still in love 38 years later."
In 1990, after both her children, Chip and Shannon, had finished high school, Dee and Bob finally realized their dream and moved to Montana, settling in Helena.
She went to work for the Best Bet as a bingo runner and, she said, "I thoroughly fell in love with it, and it' lasted for 14 years, now. There isn't anything about this business that I dislike."
From that first job as a part-time hourly bingo runner, she became a bartender, a floor boss, and for the last five years, Assistant General Manager, working closely, as well as becoming best friends, with her boss, Sandy Jones, General Manager for Best Bet' Missoula and Helena casinos.
According to Sandy, Dee was a "tireless worker" when it came to industry issues.
In that March, 2005 interview, Dee said of her cancer diagnosis, "I'm not looking for sympathy," but "I do want to spend time with my family."
She added, "I'm not a foo-foo person," and was uneasy about anybody photographing her or about friends making a fuss over her because of the terminal illness. And she refused to be bitter. "Do I feel this is fair? It' not unfair. It' just another roadblock," adding, "Life has been a wonderful adventure. I don't regret a minute of it."
Sandy Jones said, "Dee was truly loved by her staff and most of them considered her their second Mom. She was always there to help them with the trials in their lives. If you worked with Dee you weren't just another face or a number; you were a part of her life."
Sandy added, "As one who worked with Dee on an everyday basis, I will tell you I have never had a better friend or confidant. She has been my right arm. I could go fishing and never worry, because Dee was there. I can only say I was blessed to have had her in my life. I will miss her more than I can imagine, or more than she will ever know, but as Dee would say, "Enough of this foo-foo stuff.'"
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, Dec., 2006, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.