Lisa Baker

Photographer Bill Figge has photographed several Playmates over the years, but his fulltime job is much more conservative than it is glamorous. Graduations, baptisms, bar mitzvahs, Bill has photographed them all as a photographer so when he was hired to shoot another wedding, he didn’t think anything of it until he saw a stunning bridesmaid. Tall with dark hair and a Southern accent, Lisa Baker was Playmate material and Bill tried his best to convince the bridesmaid to test for Playboy. Lisa still wasn’t sold on the idea, but she agree to become Bill’s secretary instead. “I had worked in the loan service department of a savings and loan. When I was in high school in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, I worked as a ‘soda jerk’ at Hewitt's Drug Store for four years,” says the all-natural brunette. “With eight kids around, Mom and Dad could hardly keep track of our names much less our whereabouts, especially after the move. My family moved from Detroit, Texas to Broken Bow, Oklahoma when I was two, then I moved to Los Angeles when I turned 18.” California, being much more lively and expensive than Oklahoma, was an adjustment for the busty beauty who moved by herself, but she soon adapted to her new surroundings. “You can't imagine what a kick it was to have no line outside the bathroom in the mornings and a place all to my own to decorate in any way I wanted,” she laughs. Finally, after weeks of persuading, Bill’s patience paid off when Lisa said she wanted to test for Playboy once she did, she couldn’t understand why she had been so hesitant about it in the first place. “I'm probably just becoming my old impulsive self again,” admits our Miss November 1966 who plans on using her Playboy paycheck to pay for the trip of a lifetime. “I really want to go to Europe. I think a trip abroad might be the perfect way for me to learn to slow down and act more mature about life in general.” Traveling across Europe can be an expensive endeavor, but lucky for her, Playboy had dialed her phone number again with incredible news. “I can’t believe I’m Playmate of the Year!” says our surprised Miss 1967. “I had been so afraid of getting my hopes up. I just kept telling everyone ‘we’ll have to wait and see’ and now this.” With her Playmate of the Year booty tallying around $12,500 including a Plymouth Barracuda in Playmate Pink, a Formex scamper boat, water skis and a motorcycle, our Miss 1967 understandably felt overwhelmed when she saw her bounty of prizes. “Being a Playmate is a natural thing for any girl to do,” she says before planning how to celebrate this momentous occasion. “Discotheques are great for dancing, but I’d rather listen to modern jazz and the big-band sounds of Basie or Woody Herman than all the Rock 'n' Roll music put together.” Congratulations, Lisa Baker.