Shirley Mae Jones Bailey

Shirley Mae Bailey (Jones) died of old age at her home Friday evening, September 23. In her last hours, she was surrounded by all of her children and several grandchildren, her brother Richard, friends, caregivers, and in-laws. She was 85.

Shirley was born in Portland on January 20, 1926, to Juanita Bryson Jones and Richard Lloyd “Pop” Jones. She graduated from Grant High School and attended Whitman College. Shirley was chaperoning her younger sister Pat on the waterfront when she met a young sailor-on-leave who swept her off her feet. The sailor was a wheat farmer from Colorado named Max Carter Bailey. After the war, Shirley went to visit him in his hometown of Julesburg. They were married in Portland on November 16, 1946.

Life in Julesburg was difficult. The farm had no indoor plumbing and electricity was more of an aspiration than a reality. A bank of DC current batteries over the chicken coop fed by a wind charger ran the lights only. The couple had their four children while they ran a farm there: Nita, Dick, Dwaine, and Debbie. Shirley, who had attended a Christian Science Sunday school as a child, responded to an altar call at the Julesburg Church of Christ.

The family set off from Julesburg to start another farm in Watauga, South Dakota. They bought more land and diversified from wheat into grains, corn, dairy and poultry. Life in Watauga was better, with more than aspirational electricity and plumbing, but still difficult. Max promised that he would bring his city girl home to Portland.

Max made good on that promise in 1965. He took his father-in-law's advice, sold the Watauga farm, and bought a co-op share owner in Linnton Plywood, where he worked until his retirement. Back in Portland, Shirley raised their children and worked as an office manager for the regional office of New Balance shoes.

Shirley was very involved in church ministries at Temple Baptist and Crossroads. She worked in the quilting ministry, the cup ministry and the food bank, to name a few. Perhaps because of her late conversion, she attached great importance to the power of prayer. She would pray for any and everything, including parking spots.

Shirley and Max were especially involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren, and had the good fortune to outlast them all. (Max died in 1999.) Shirley is survived by her 4 children, 13 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren, her kid brother Rich, and Cristina Mae Schmitt. She will be remembered for her loves: of chocolate chip cookies, tea, the color purple, and going out for Sunday dinners with her family.

Arrangements under the direction of Ross Hollywood Chapel & Killingsworth St. John's Lombard Little Chapel of the Chimes, Portland, OR.