Baker, who until last week was performing dinner shows at the Town House Restaurant, died Monday night at the age of 85 after a short illness, said his wife, Jane Ong-Baker.

Baker who had lived and performed in Albuquerque since the mid-1960's, was born in Honolulu on Feb. 7, 1921. By the time he was 13 he was performing, playing rhythm ukelele in a band.

Baker's first gig was a performance for a Hawaiian ladies' glee club event when President Roosevelt dedicated the Ala Moana Beachpark in Waikiki.

It kicked of a career that thrived throughout the 1930s and 1940s in Hawaii. He played for several of Hawaii's most popular musicians at night and taught surfing during the day.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Baker was on the island. He never served in the military, Ong-Baker said, because he was working for the telephone company and kept the communications lines up and running on the Hawaiian Islands.

After the war, Baker came to the mainland and tried to work as a musician in Los Angeles. He didn't get work playing, but he did as an actor. He was an extra - as an American Indian - in the film "Hell's Gate" and later had small roles in "Road to Bali" with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and "In The Navy" with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, according to a biography of Baker.

He did return to playing music, as "Freddy Kekaulike Baker and the Polynesians", and toured the country. His timing was spot on. In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state. All things Hawaiian were popular, and he was booked at the Albuquerque Skyline Nightclub on West Central and the old Alvarado Hotel.

Jane Ong noticed him when he would visit her family's retaurants, the Chinatown Restaurant on Gold and the U&I Cafe on Forth Street.

By 1965, Ong-Baker said, the two were a couple and Baker was a regular performer at the Tiki-Kai Nightclub, owned by the Ong family, and later the bar at the New Chinatown.

Baker's Hawaiian name Kekaulike means "fair and just," Ong-Baker said, and Baker's local fans said it was a fitting name. "The one thing, anytime you were in his presence you felt transported to another world entirely. (Jane and Freddy) took that spirit of love, and you felt in the bosom of family and for me it was like a vacation anytime that I spent an evening at the Polynesian Lounge, " said longtime Baker fan Erik Fredrickson. "He was the real deal."

Though Baker never recorded a CD, visitors to a Baker Memorial on Feb. 24th at French Mortuary, 105000 Lomas NE, will receive a special CD, Ong-Baker said.

"Freddy never wanted to make CDs. He wanted to have fun and take it easy. We have some songs on cassette from the New Chinatown, so were putting some songs together and we will put out a CD.

"Mahalo means a special 'Thank You' to the Hawaiian people; once they see that, they know it means 'with love.' Aloha is saying Hello or goodbye, but Mahalo Freddy, Mahalo," Ong-Baker said.