Elizabeth "Betty" (Harrison) Bailey

Elizabeth Bishop Harrison “Betty” Bailey, 99, died peacefully on September 30, 2015, at the Bee Hive in Hamilton.

Betty was born on May 16, 1916, in Grand Rapids, Minn., to Ethelyn Conway Harrison and Francis Randal Harrison. Her father was a dentist, and during World War I, her mother served as principal of the high school in St. Cloud, Minn., her father’s home town. Betty and her two brothers attended grade school in St. Cloud surrounded by both sets of grandparents and two uncles who spoiled them. These were happy and care-free years for the Harrison kids.

In 1926, Betty’s father and older brother John moved to Montana, where her father began a dental practice in Harlowton. Her mother took a job as Assistant Dean of Women at the University of Minnesota and lived in the women’s dormitory. Betty and her younger brother Bob lived in South Minneapolis with their grandmother. On weekends, Betty stayed in the college dormitory with her mom and learned to operate the switchboard. That was great fun for a 12-year-old!

In 1928, Betty and Bob, along with their mother, joined their father and brother in Harlowton. This was quite a cultural change for the young city dwellers. Two years later, in 1930, Betty’s mom got a job at Montana State College in Bozeman as Dean of Women. Betty spent her last three years of high school at Gallatin County High School where she graduated in 1933. Her brother John, later served on the Montana Supreme Court.

During her high school years, she met her future husband, Homer Bailey, in Bozeman. On her first trip to the Bailey Ranch in Homer’s tiny roadster, Betty, who was a high school junior, had to sit on Clarence Popham’s lap all the way from Bozeman. During this visit, she dined with the Bailey family and their friends Moses and Ma Chaffin and was teased incessantly by future brother-in-law, Otto Quast.

After briefly attending Montana State, Betty returned to Minneapolis for two years to attend Pepin Academy of Fashion.   Betty’s transition from the fashion world of Minneapolis to her husband’s family ranch in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley was not easy. But like most things in her life, she undertook the challenge with determination, style and grace. While in the valley to plan her wedding, Betty attended a women’s club luncheon hosted by Grandma Bailey. Anxious to make a good impression, Betty donned her nicest dress. Mabel Popham said later she was in awe of the fact that Betty had worn silk stockings and confessed her belief that Homer’s bride might not fit in very well in the Bitterroot.

On March 7, 1937, Homer and Betty Bailey were married. After living with Homer’s parents for several months, they finally moved in to their own home, a recently renovated house that had previously housed ranch laborers. After completely stocking the house with new furnishings and groceries, the newlyweds began seeing beetles dropping out of the window casings. Within a few days their new home was completely infested with the crawling insects. “We had to throw out all our supplies, … had to get rid of everything. They hired a fumigator and I went home to Bozeman,” Betty later recalled.

Together, Betty and Homer Bailey struggled through the remaining years of the Great Depression and World War II. Facing labor shortages that almost crippled their sugar beet operation, they met the challenges by hiring a variety of migrant workers – the Filipinos that topped beets by hand under the light of kerosene lanterns but left when the war began, the laborers from Mexico that lived for a short time in Quonset huts in a community labor camp on the ranch, the conscientious objectors who performed farm labor instead of going to war, and finally a Japanese-American internee family who worked on the farm during the later years of World War II and became life-long friends.

Betty, whose brother Bob was killed in Germany during the war, also had to endure a brief but very interesting time after the war when German prisoners were confined in a make-shift P.O.W. camp on the Bailey Ranch.  “They put search lights on the corner of Bailey Lane and Eastside Highway, and the lights were on all night long.” Betty recalled. “Soldiers marched up and down with their guns. It was a very uncomfortable time.”

During and after the war, the Baileys transitioned their farm from labor-intensive sugar beets to cattle, and the local ranch hands came to love Betty’s incredible cooking. Salesmen would regularly stop at the Bailey house around lunch and dinner, knowing that Betty would insist that they “stay for supper.” In addition to cooking big family meals, Betty delighted in making and decorating cookies at Christmastime and delivering them to friends and family. She later took her talent for decorating and started making wedding cakes for friends and family, staying up until the wee hours of the morning with her equally talented friend, Florence Erickson, decorating cakes.

Homer and Betty Bailey were blessed with three children – John, Mary and Robert. John developed a brain tumor at age 15 and Betty and Homer spent seven months with him away from home in treatment before he died. They were married for 63 years before Homer died in 2000.

Betty was a faithful member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church since 1937, and was a member of PEO for more than 50 years. She was also a member of the Order of Eastern Star and a Pi Beta Phi. She was active in Compassionate Friends and volunteered on Friday nights at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital as a Pink Lady until 1994. 

Betty had a warm and welcoming personality and a strong sense of fairness. In spite of being profoundly deaf from the age of 12, she was always the first to make a newcomer feel welcome. She would listen attentively, even though she only heard about a quarter of what was said.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Ethelyn and Francis Harrison; husband, Homer Clay Bailey; son, John Clay Bailey; and brothers, Robert and John Harrison; grandson, Michael Luke.

She is survived by daughter, Mary Lyn and husband Ron Uemura; son Robert Scott Bailey and wife Arlene Bailey; 7 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, 5 great, great grandchildren and 15 nieces and nephews.

A memorial service for Betty will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 17 with Rev. Bill Baumgarten officiating.   An “Afternoon Tea” reception in her honor will follow the services.

The family suggests memorials to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Starkey Hearing Foundation.