Agnes Louise Bailey

Born September 7, 1932, to Ernest and Alma (Coyle) Stritz, Agnes grew up in Noble County, Ohio, and attended Caldwell High School, graduating in 1951.

Agnes was strong and resilient. When her first husband, Raymond Bosold, died unexpectedly, she was just 24 years old, left to care for their young daughter, Vicki. She found work in a medical office and, in time, lasting happiness with her second husband, William "Bill" Bailey. Bill embraced Agnes and Vicki wholeheartedly, loving Vicki as his own. Over 46 years of marriage, Agnes and Bill raised a family, worked side by side, and shared a life filled with affection and laughter. Agnes adored him, and his death in 2006 brought another painful loss. Yet she carried on for two more decades as the unspoken matriarch of a family that continued to grow around her.

Industrious and entrepreneurial, Agnes pursued a variety of occupations throughout her life. During the 1970s, she and Bill owned and operated Bailey's Furniture in Pataskala. She also earned her real estate license and later spent approximately two decades working with Vicki at The Post House, their furniture and gift shop in Pataskala.

A devout Catholic, Agnes was a longtime parishioner of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Buckeye Lake. She volunteered with the church's food pantry and with Heartbeats, a local pregnancy resource center.

Above all, Aggie loved children. Along with raising their four kids, she and Bill opened their home to foster children, and she cared for countless others through babysitting. She eagerly looked after all her grandchildren, even without prompting, and delighted in each new great-grandchild. In her later years, she referred to herself simply as "Granny," a title she wore proudly.

For decades, first in Pataskala and later in Hebron, Aggie's home was the center of family life. Birthdays and holidays brought everyone together under her roof. Thankfully, most meals were potluck affairs, given Aggie's knack for butchering perfectly good recipes: she routinely sacrificed vital ingredients for drier, blander alternatives in a quest to make dishes "better for you."

Her culinary experiments reflected a lifelong fascination with health foods, supplements, and wellness trends. She pursued one exercise craze after another, from aerobics with Denise Austin and Richard Simmons to the NordicTrack, the treadmill, and the Gazelle. Yet all her efforts at healthy living were no match for an indomitable sweet tooth, which frequently led her back to chocolate cake and ice cream. And, of course, she never lost her affection for Bob Evans.

Aggie was refreshingly frank, occasionally stubborn, and deeply loving. She had a dry sense of humor and a limited filter that grew more threadbare with age. She kept close tabs on everyone and took it upon herself to keep them in line, sometimes directly and sometimes by calling one child to complain about another. A notoriously poor speller, Aggie nevertheless considered herself a math whiz, a claim her family never fully verified.

She loved playing cards, especially euchre, and few things pleased her more than a spirited game with family and friends. She remained independent well into her nineties, living on her own, cruising around town in her Buick, and making her regular rounds to church, Kroger, and the hairdresser.

It's heartening to remember Aggie in her element: at home, glowing amid the bustle of a holiday gathering, occasionally dropping a story that catches everyone off guard; or at the dining room table, cards in hand, cackling mischievously as she reveals the left bower and steals the final trick while her forgotten pot of coffee percolates nearby.

Agnes was preceded in death by her husbands, Raymond H. Bosold and William E. Bailey; her parents, Ernest and Alma Stritz; and her siblings, Alice “Pork” (Harold “Harry”) Bruner, Ernest “Buck” Stritz, Carl “Peck” (Shirley) Stritz, and Rebecca “Becky” Stritz.

She is survived by her four children, Victoria "Vicki" (Stephen) White, Elizabeth "Liz" (Rex) Nye, Margaret "Meg" Bailey(Tincher), and Christopher "Chris" (Diane) Bailey; five grandchildren, Jonah (Thea) White, Nicholas "Nick" (Danielle) Brown, Henrieta "Henri" White (and her longtime partner, Joshua "Josh" Simon), Audrey (Joseph) Matuska, and William "Liam" Bailey; six great-grandchildren, Emma, Hayden, Haleigh, Ella, Hudson, and Alexandra; her sister-in-law, Sandee Stritz; and numerous nieces, nephews, and other relatives. Her family is especially grateful to the many friends and loved ones who stayed in touch with Aggie, visited her, and shared their time with her over the years.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, November 20, at 11:00 a.m. at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, 5133 Walnut Road, Buckeye Lake, Ohio. Visitation will be held at the church from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., with the Rosary recited at 10:30 a.m. Interment will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery in Pataskala, where Agnes will be laid to rest beside Bill. After the burial, family and friends are invited to a luncheon in the parish hall at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to Heartbeats of Licking County, the organization Agnes supported through her volunteer work.