Satellite Beach's 'Pepper Tree Man' dies at age 93

INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH - After flying combat missions over Europe during World War II, John Baker spent a quarter century engaged in hand-to-limb combat against beachside Brazilian pepper trees between the Eau Gallie and Pineda causeways.

Baker, the Space Coast's pre-eminent pepper-tree buster, passed away July 6. He was 93.

Since the 1990s, Brevard County barrier-island leaders advertised Baker's pepper-tree removal service and home phone number in Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach and South Patrick Shores community newsletters. He labored and sweated in the hot sun, chopping up the exotic invaders free of charge.

"He had his own war, I think with the Brazilian peppers," Harry Holloman, senior pastor at Satellite Beach United Methodist Church, said Monday during Baker's memorial service at Beach Funeral Home in Indian Harbor Beach.

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