SARAH SMITH BAILEY

BAILEY, SARAH SMITH - 77, of Knoxville, and formerly of Cleveland, Tennessee, passed away peacefully the morning of Aug. 19, 2013, at Baptist Health Care Nursing Home in Lenoir City, following years of battling Alzheimer's disease. She was born Sept. 20, 1935, in Miami, Florida, at Jackson Memorial Hospital, to Martha Smith and George Clisby Smith. She was raised in Coral Gables, Florida, and attended the University of Alabama on a full academic scholarship, graduating in 1957 with a degree in education. While at Alabama she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She married Herschel K. Bailey III, Ph.D., in June of 1975 and moved to Knoxville. There he would become Dean of Students of the upper school at Webb School of Knoxville, and she would be both an art teacher and substitute teacher at Webb. She taught there from the late 1970s into the early 1990s. She was previously married to C. Lee Walls, Sr. and they moved to Cleveland, in 1959, when Mr. Walls became publisher of the Cleveland Daily Banner and where she was a civic leader, an artist, and a key figure working with various arts organizations in the area. They had two children while in Cleveland, Sarah Elizabeth Walls (now Sarah Elizabeth Malinak), and C. Lee Walls, Jr. Mrs. Bailey was a life-long member of the United Methodist Church and as an adult was active primarily in three churches; Broad Street UMC in Cleveland, Middlebrook Pike UMC in Knoxville, and First Farragut UMC in Knoxville. At Broad Street she taught youth classes for 10 years, and at Middlebrook Pike she taught adult classes for 25 years. She was most recently a member of First Farragut UMC where she led small group Bible studies and was a member of the board. She is survived by her husband, Herschel K. Bailey III; her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Malinak and her husband, Joseph, of Asheville, North Carolina; her son, C. Lee Wall, Jr. and his wife, Jeanne; and their daughters, Courtney and Jessica, of Birmingham, Alabama; her stepdaughter, Kimberly June Bailey of Smyrna, Georgia; her stepson, H. Killebrew Bailey IV and his wife, Sheri; and their son, Easton, of Norcross, Georgia; and her brother, George Clisby Smith Jr., and his wife, Janet, of Fairhope, Alabama. There will be a ceremony honoring and celebrating her life on Saturday, Aug. 24 2013, at 2:00 p.m., in the sanctuary at First Farragut United Methodist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee. It was Mrs. Bailey's wish that donations be made to their church in lieu of flowers www.ffumc.org