Jerry Dale Bailey

A private graveside service will be held at Rolling Oaks Cemetery, in Coppell, Texas, where Jerry and his wife Betty, longtime Galveston residents, had moved to be near their children and grandchildren.

Jerry was born August 24, 1940, in Childress, Texas, to Bert E. Bailey, an oilfield-services worker, and Sandra Lanier Bailey, a housewife and later a manager with Furr’s Cafeterias. Jerry fondly remembered his childhood in a musical household in boomtown-era Odessa. He excelled, like his older brother, as a violinist in the Odessa High School orchestra, and he and all three of his siblings went on to study music at what was then North Texas State University, in Denton, where Jerry earned a bachelor’s in music education.

He made his career as an orchestra director, briefly in the Abilene public schools, then for more than 25 years in the Galveston Independent School District, at Ball High School and all of the city’s public middle schools. He was a mentor to several generations of kids, sharing lessons in subjects that ranged far beyond music—he was the kind of teacher many students stayed in touch with after high school.

Outside the classroom, Jerry was a respected and influential presence in Galveston’s arts community. His string quartet played an ambitious classical series at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, but he also could put together a group of students to play light pops in a tearoom during Dickens on the Strand. He performed in and helped recruit musicians for churches of many faiths, for Galveston Summer Musicals, even for the filming of a scene in a Gambler television movie at Galveston Opera House.

In 1979, Jerry cofounded the Galveston Symphony Orchestra, which he took immense pride in over the years. He was an anchor of the violin and viola sections over the years, and traveled to Galveston to play in GSO concerts even after he had retired and moved to North Texas.

Jerry loved fine violins and violas and was full of admiration for the craftsmen who made them. He once carved his own violin bow, from pernambuco wood he ordered from Brazil (sadly, its quality fell well short of the masters). Another time he took over an “extra” bedroom (his tween-age daughters could double up and share) to spend months building a harpsichord from a kit, donating his time and sweat so the school orchestra program could acquire such an instrument at an affordable price.

Jerry brought his characteristic enthusiasm to many interests beyond music, and he was full of spirited conversation about them. His family remembers him taking over the sole bathroom in the house to use as a darkroom, making it off limits for hours at a time, while he developed his photographs. There was no escaping trips to hi-fi stores (Jerry blasting samples of Also Sprach Zarathustra, mortifying his daughters, and finding the bass sound inadequate), to sailboat showrooms (no motorboats, please), or to a lecture by a physicist at NASA.

He was a font of information on Texas’ Civil War history and all things West Texas—when he had a pithy letter-to-the-editor published in the Wall Street Journal, it was to set ’em straight on horny toads. In later years, his focused more energy on genealogy, his dogs, and his adored grandchildren. When trips to Galveston became too hard because of health issues, he played viola in the Coppell Community Orchestra and a little violin at home—Bach, most particularly.

Jerry is survived by Betty Hartnett Bailey, his wife of 62 years; daughters Marilyn Bailey (Robert Philpot) and Sharon King (Brandon); grandchildren Casey King and Nicholas King; brother Wayne Bailey (Martha); sister Sandra Corse; sister Susan Baer (Donald); and a niece and nephews.

Memorials may be made to the Galveston Symphony Orchestra.