NATCHEZ — Graveside services for Lester Allan “Trey” Baker III, 52, who died Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014, after a lengthy and courageous battle with cancer, will be 11 a.m. Feb. 8 in the Natchez City Cemetery under the direction of Laird Funeral Home.

A celebration of life reception will follow in the promenade poom at the Eola Hotel.

Mr. Baker was born Dec. 5, 1961, in Hattiesburg, the son of Lester Allan Baker Jr. and Evelyn Elethia Ketchings Baker.

Mr. Baker attended Sam Houston State University and the prestigious Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston.  He became interested and involved in the restaurant business as early as his high school years and worked in and owned restaurants his entire life. He loved his partnership in Sonic Drive-Ins and was dedicated to the people with whom he worked.

He was a Master Mason in the West University and Bay City Lodges. He was a member of the Texas Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, sons of Confederate Veterans, the Tomball Archeological Recovery Club and owner and founder of Aardvark Enterprises, a distributor of metal detectors.

Mr. Baker was preceded in death by his mother, Evelyn Ketchings Grau.

Survivors include his father, Lester Allan Baker Jr., and stepmother, Susan Webb Baker; two daughters, Kimberly Diane Baker and Amanda Leanne Baker, to whom he was a devoted father; two brothers, Ward Baker and wife, June Baker, and their daughters Ashley Baker and Kristina Baker, and Stephen Baker, his wife, Maria, and son, Kelly Baker.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made the Make a Wish Foundation, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital or Living Waters.

Please note that all services are “come as you are” per Mr. Baker’s request, and there is no need to dress in traditional funeral attire.