Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Elizabeth Warren Traylor Baarda of LaGrange passed away peacefully in her sleep on Feb. 16, 2024. She was born on Sept. 2, 1936, to her parents, Joe Horsley Traylor and Anna Elizabeth Warren Traylor, who have both preceded her in death. 

The family lived in Gabbettville, Georgia and included two older sisters, Mary Nelle Traylor and Joann Traylor Smith, who have also preceded her in death.

Before her retirement, Elizabeth was a junior high, high school, and college science teacher. She attended Georgia State College for Women where she majored in chemistry and established lifelong friendships with her roommate and suite mates. These lifelong friendships were reunited and celebrated every New Year’s Eve with little exception. 

She continued her education with the support of professors Miss Trawick and Dr. Vincent and earned her Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Florida in 1961.

She met her husband, David, while in Gainesville and was married on June 16, 1962, at Long Cane Baptist Church of Gabbettville, Georgia. The couple moved to Port Arthur, Texas where David began employment with the lab at Texaco. They also started their family in Texas with the birth of their first daughter, Jo Anna. 

The family moved to Milledgeville, Georgia the summer of that same year where David became a chemistry and physics professor at Georgia College. The family added two more daughters, Mary Elizabeth (Beth) and Laura Jean. David and Elizabeth raised their family and established their teaching careers in the Milledgeville community, which included the First Presbyterian Church. 

Elizabeth was a devoted and steadfast mother, a loyal and compassionate friend, and a strongly independent woman. She shared 61 years of marriage with David in which they navigated life together and gave courage and support to so many people.

Survivors include her husband, Dr. David Gene Baarda; daughters, Dr. Jo Anna Fish, Mary Elizabeth (Beth) Baarda, and the Reverend Laura Jean Baarda; grandchildren, John David Fish, Emily Elizabeth Yancey (Mark), Allison Lee Burt (Collin), and Andrew Ray Fish; great-grandchildren, Sadie Ann Elizabeth Yancey, and Benjamin Richard Yancey. She is preceded in death by her parents, two sisters, and her son-in-law, John Edward Fish.

The family will have a graveside service beginning at 3 P.M. on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, at the Traylor Family Cemetery in LaGrange, Georgia. 

A memorial service will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Milledgeville, Georgia on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at 1 P.M.

 Flowers are accepted, or donations can be made in memory of Elizabeth Baarda to The Exceptional Way of LaGrange at www.theexceptionalway.org/support-us. 

Higgins Funeral Home at Hunter Allen Myhand, 706-884-5626.