Essel W. Bailey

Essel W. Bailey

On a cool day in mid-November of 1916, after the harvest was completed, Martha Harbin Bailey gave birth on the family farm to her third child, a gangling boy they inexplicably named Essel. He was to be an important member of the family and one who went North to make his fortune. Essel William Bailey was born on Nov. 13, 1916, and died Jan. 27, 2015, celebrating his 98th birthday only two months ago with a bevy of relatives, Baileys, McClanahans, and other friends in attendance, as was his second wife, Juanita, and her family.

First married in 1941, to Ethel Linville Bailey, whose family lived on a nearby Tennessee farm, he and Ethel, who predeceased him in 2007, had four children and raised them in Michigan where Essel made his way in the industrial North. He first worked in a tire factory for what is now BF Goodrich and then returned to his roots as a farmer, building a business in the landscaping arena, drawing on his hard experience in agriculture; at one time operating nursery sod farms totaling 750 acres in Michigan. He worked hard with his wife and family as helpers, as do all farmers, and his business prospered. Theirs was a 65 year marriage, and, besides the highlight of four children, included travel around the world for a year during the early 1970s, where he visited local Rotary chapters and his wife, Ethel, a kindergarten teacher, visited local schools and assessed early elementary education programs in places like Iran, Turkey, and Thailand.

Essel served in World War II and landed on Normandy Beach in late June of 1944. During his absence in service, his wife, Ethel, who stayed with her family in Tennessee during his service, gave birth to his first child, Essel Jr. His other children, James, Amanda Diane, and David, who all survive, were born in Michigan and grew up there. With the help of his wife, Ethel, and their emphasis on education, they supported each of the children through first rate high schools, college, and graduate schools where they earned numerous advanced degrees and went on to have their own kids, his grandchildren, who in turn produced his two great-grandchildren who he was able to meet only two months before his death.

Throughout their time in Michigan, he and Ethel regularly returned to Tennessee and Alabama and maintained family ties and connections with the local community where his seven siblings and Ethel's seven siblings lived and raised families. They returned to Alabama in retirement in 2006 where his wife, Ethel, died in 2007.

In 2008, he married Juanita Johnson Bailey, and they enjoyed a full and supportive life together, visiting their respective families with Juanita the solid chauffer and once traveling for 6 weeks by train across the country to visit their respective children in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Massachusettes, Michigan, Colorado, and Alabama.

He is to be buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Tennessee not far from the graves of his parents and those of his family. Serving as pallbearers will be his son, David Bailey, and grandsons, Essel III, James, Thomas, Robert, and John Bailey.

He leaves behind an important testament to the power of hard work, persistence, and the importance of family and education.

In addition to his wife, Juanita, and his four children (and their spouses respectively, Menakka, RoAnn, John, and Alison), and their children (Essel III, Justin, Nicholas, Emma, James, Thomas, Robert, and John), he is survived by his stepchildren, Susan Zickos, Sharon Ramsey, Pam Brooks, and Bill Akins, and their children; and his nephews, Tommy, Johnny, Othel, and Mac McClanahan; and his nieces, Martha Bowen and Orpha Cox.

Visitation will be Friday, Jan. 30, from 11-11:30 a.m. at Spry-Williams Funeral Home, Florence. The funeral service will follow at 11:30 in the funeral home chapel. Burial, with military honors, will be at Oak Grove Cemetery, Cypress Inn, Tennessee.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, contributions in his honor be made to Cranbrook Schools C/O the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, P.O. Box 801, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303.

You may sign the guest register at sprywilliams.com.