Friends… words will fall short. Our amazing Mother, Betty Marie McCoy Bailey, passed away peacefully at her home on Friday, November 21, 2025, at 6:31 pm, surrounded by love and devoted care from her two surviving sons, Mike and Mark, and her daughter-in-law Jutarat, who attended to her every need around the clock. Among her other immediate wonderful family members are her sister Patlynn Moses (McCoy) and two brothers: Jon McCoy, Donald Mccoy and their children respectively. She was blessed with 5 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.
Betty Marie entered eternity with the same grace, courage, and quiet strength that defined every day of her life. Her nurses and aides were touched by her sweet demeanor, grateful for the care she received from them.
To her family, Betty Marie was a giant - legendary, really. She had the heart of a lion with the touch of a lamb. Fierce when needed, gentle always, she raised three boys: Mike, Mark, and Mitch - with boundless patience, devotion and grit.
She cared tenderly for her beloved husband of 68 years, RD Bailey, through his lifelong physical health issues, throughout his illness beginning in 2020 and his passing in 2022. The love they shared was steady and extraordinary, a partnership rooted in loyalty, faith, and deep affection. RD Bailey was an amazingly successful entrepreneur, and could not have achieved that success without the love and support of his wife.
Betty Marie grew up within a humble household, under humble circumstances. Her amazing Parents worked hard every day, and their family literally lived off the land in a dirt-farming circumstance. Their honest work-ethic influenced her path, as well as her heritage growing up on the border of Mexico, cultivating and teaching us to respect other cultures.
A woman of remarkable gifts, Betty poured herself into ministering to others. As a master quilter and seamstress, she created and gave away hundreds of quilts—each one a warm testimony of her love, prayer, and craftsmanship. Over her lifetime, she served as a Schoolteacher, Paralegal, Cattleman’s wife, Entrepreneur wife, Farmer’s daughter, devoted Sister, loving Daughter, docent to the El Paso Museum of Art, and so much more. But above all, she was an incredible wife and an outstanding mother—an anchor for her family and an inspiration to everyone who knew her.
One of her quilts adorned the cover of “Quilter Magazine”. Another of her “Oklahoma” themed quilts won first 1st place at the Oklahoma Quilt Show, then the following year that same quilt was so admired that it won 3rd place at the Texas Quilt Show (go figure).
A proud native Texan who delighted in the beauty of the Southwest, Betty carried a love for simple joys. Her kitchen was the heart of many of those joys, turning out chocolate pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, butter crème banana-nut cake, and her husband’s favorite - prune cake. Nothing she baked ever lasted long.
She faithfully hauled crews of boys to gymnastics meets, swim meets, track, basketball and football practices. She made their clothes (and for many others), mended them, and marched them to doctors for stitches, casts, and surgeries. She was as fine a nurse as any could hope for—even when her children were confined to hospital beds.
She taught her children to respect arts and culture. She was a longtime docent to the El Paso Museum of Arts, and dragged her children to movie theatre documentaries, orchestral performances, ballet performances, etc.. Decades later, Mike and Mark regularly accompanied her to these type performances at the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera and Fort Worth Ballet.
Brilliant and disciplined, she had the finest handwriting anyone had ever seen. She taught herself shorthand and became a meticulous note-taker. In school, her excellence earned her the distinct honor of being selected for Girls State, meeting the President of the United States at that time - an achievement she often recalled with pride.
She loved reading the Dallas Morning News on Sundays and Texas Monthly magazine, even long after both publications became “way too liberal” for her conservative nature. She loved Jesus deeply, studying Him carefully and living out her faith… not through loud preaching, but through quiet, constant testimony - through kindness, service, gentleness, and integrity. She walked the talk.
A 30+ year cancer survivor, Betty used her own experience to care for and comfort others walking through similar battles.
In her downtime she enjoyed watching Blue Bloods and other crime dramas. She read every book by Tony Hillerman (Leaphorn and Chee… one of her all-time favorites), and never missed an episode of Dark Winds. She became a huge fan of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD. Her close friend Margaret McKoin spent many Wed evenings watching those episodes together. Mom also loved her subscriptions to Readers Digest, Texas Monthly and The Saturday Evening Post magazines.
For decades, Mom and her Mother donated their blood to their local blood bank. I finally joined that practice in her later years. Hard to imagine how many gallons of blood the two of them donated.
Though never particularly fond of dogs, she kept Harget (named after the family that blessed us with that puppy, one Christmas day) until the end because he once saved one of her sons’ lives - proof of her steadfast loyalty, one of her defining qualities.
More than anything else, Betty loved the little things in life, and she loved loving people. She “rode for the brand,” lived without complaining or criticizing, and passed from this life in the same humble, gracious way she lived it.
Betty Marie Bailey leaves behind a legacy of strength, service, loyalty, and love—woven into the lives of her family, stitched into every quilt she made, and reflected in every life she touched. Her family rejoices that she is reunited with her beloved husband RD and her son Mitch, and we all give thanks for the extraordinary gift of her life.
Betty Marie entered eternity with the same grace, courage, and quiet strength that defined every day of her life. Her nurses and aides were touched by her sweet demeanor, grateful for the care she received from them.
To her family, Betty Marie was a giant - legendary, really. She had the heart of a lion with the touch of a lamb. Fierce when needed, gentle always, she raised three boys: Mike, Mark, and Mitch - with boundless patience, devotion and grit.
She cared tenderly for her beloved husband of 68 years, RD Bailey, through his lifelong physical health issues, throughout his illness beginning in 2020 and his passing in 2022. The love they shared was steady and extraordinary, a partnership rooted in loyalty, faith, and deep affection. RD Bailey was an amazingly successful entrepreneur, and could not have achieved that success without the love and support of his wife.
Betty Marie grew up within a humble household, under humble circumstances. Her amazing Parents worked hard every day, and their family literally lived off the land in a dirt-farming circumstance. Their honest work-ethic influenced her path, as well as her heritage growing up on the border of Mexico, cultivating and teaching us to respect other cultures.
A woman of remarkable gifts, Betty poured herself into ministering to others. As a master quilter and seamstress, she created and gave away hundreds of quilts—each one a warm testimony of her love, prayer, and craftsmanship. Over her lifetime, she served as a Schoolteacher, Paralegal, Cattleman’s wife, Entrepreneur wife, Farmer’s daughter, devoted Sister, loving Daughter, docent to the El Paso Museum of Art, and so much more. But above all, she was an incredible wife and an outstanding mother—an anchor for her family and an inspiration to everyone who knew her.
One of her quilts adorned the cover of “Quilter Magazine”. Another of her “Oklahoma” themed quilts won first 1st place at the Oklahoma Quilt Show, then the following year that same quilt was so admired that it won 3rd place at the Texas Quilt Show (go figure).
A proud native Texan who delighted in the beauty of the Southwest, Betty carried a love for simple joys. Her kitchen was the heart of many of those joys, turning out chocolate pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, butter crème banana-nut cake, and her husband’s favorite - prune cake. Nothing she baked ever lasted long.
She faithfully hauled crews of boys to gymnastics meets, swim meets, track, basketball and football practices. She made their clothes (and for many others), mended them, and marched them to doctors for stitches, casts, and surgeries. She was as fine a nurse as any could hope for—even when her children were confined to hospital beds.
She taught her children to respect arts and culture. She was a longtime docent to the El Paso Museum of Arts, and dragged her children to movie theatre documentaries, orchestral performances, ballet performances, etc.. Decades later, Mike and Mark regularly accompanied her to these type performances at the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera and Fort Worth Ballet.
Brilliant and disciplined, she had the finest handwriting anyone had ever seen. She taught herself shorthand and became a meticulous note-taker. In school, her excellence earned her the distinct honor of being selected for Girls State, meeting the President of the United States at that time - an achievement she often recalled with pride.
She loved reading the Dallas Morning News on Sundays and Texas Monthly magazine, even long after both publications became “way too liberal” for her conservative nature. She loved Jesus deeply, studying Him carefully and living out her faith… not through loud preaching, but through quiet, constant testimony - through kindness, service, gentleness, and integrity. She walked the talk.
A 30+ year cancer survivor, Betty used her own experience to care for and comfort others walking through similar battles.
In her downtime she enjoyed watching Blue Bloods and other crime dramas. She read every book by Tony Hillerman (Leaphorn and Chee… one of her all-time favorites), and never missed an episode of Dark Winds. She became a huge fan of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD. Her close friend Margaret McKoin spent many Wed evenings watching those episodes together. Mom also loved her subscriptions to Readers Digest, Texas Monthly and The Saturday Evening Post magazines.
For decades, Mom and her Mother donated their blood to their local blood bank. I finally joined that practice in her later years. Hard to imagine how many gallons of blood the two of them donated.
Though never particularly fond of dogs, she kept Harget (named after the family that blessed us with that puppy, one Christmas day) until the end because he once saved one of her sons’ lives - proof of her steadfast loyalty, one of her defining qualities.
More than anything else, Betty loved the little things in life, and she loved loving people. She “rode for the brand,” lived without complaining or criticizing, and passed from this life in the same humble, gracious way she lived it.
Betty Marie Bailey leaves behind a legacy of strength, service, loyalty, and love—woven into the lives of her family, stitched into every quilt she made, and reflected in every life she touched. Her family rejoices that she is reunited with her beloved husband RD and her son Mitch, and we all give thanks for the extraordinary gift of her life.
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