Famed Author Russell Baker, Ex-Belleville Resident, Dies At 93

BELLEVILLE, NJ — Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former “Masterpiece Theatre” host Russell Baker, who used to live in Essex County, passed away Monday at his home in Leesburg, Virginia. He was 93.

Baker died after suffering complications from a fall, according to his son, The New York Times reported.

Before Baker started his career as one of the nation’s most idiosyncratic wordsmiths, he lived in Essex County. After his father died when Baker was five, his mother moved to Newark, then later brought the future author and his younger sister to live in Belleville.

Baker wrote about his Great Depression-era youth in Belleville in his 1982 memoir, “Growing Up”:

“Uncle Allen moved us out of Newark and up to Belleville in 1932. I liked Belleville, there were big grassy lawns and streets canopied with trees. We lived on the first floor of a two-family house across the street from Public School Number 8.”

After getting his literary start scribbling in notebooks in a Belleville classroom, Baker went on to write as a columnist for The New York Times, author 15 books and host “Masterpiece Theatre” from 1992 to 2004.

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