Thomas "Tom" Bailey

Thomas “Tom” Bradshaw Bailey (AKA “GDad”) Tom was born October 28, 1932 in New Orleans and died peacefully on August 3, 2020 of natural causes at home in Mandeville surrounded by his family. Tom was the son of Dr. James Edwin Bailey and Lydia Bradshaw Bailey (both deceased). He is survived by his wife, Lucille Stratton Bailey, four children: Lydia Bailey Hardy (Mark), Shelley Stratton Bailey, Thomas Bradshaw Bailey, Jr., Lucille Bailey Albrecht (Jeffrey), and eight grandchildren: Frances Boeckling Hardy, Clive Thomas Hardy, Audrey Bailey Jones, Everett “Scooter” Thomas Jones, Thomas Bradshaw Bailey III, Georgia Gayle Bailey, William Thomas Albrecht, Charles Michael Albrecht. A friend of his children, Christiane Seton Martzell (deceased), lived with Tom’s family through high school, and Tom would often say that he had 5 children: 1 son and 4 daughters but one was deceased, Christiane. He was preceded in death by his sister Wanda Hope Knapp and his brother James Edwin Bailey Jr. and is survived by his sister-in-law Roberta Bailey Pavy and numerous loving nieces and nephews from several generations. Tom attended Rugby Academy on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans and graduated high school from Georgia Military Academy. He attended Tulane University and became a member of ATO Fraternity. He graduated with a BS from University of Southern Mississippi and joined the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as an instructor of new recruits. After leaving active duty (there is no such thing as an ex-Marine) Tom attended graduate school to study Agriculture while living and working on his family farm in Jennings, LA. Eventually Tom bought his own cattle farm in Kokomo, MS. However, Tom was never one to limit himself to any one thing for too long, and along with being a cattle rancher and farmer, he was a salesman beyond equal, selling among other things, hardware, medical equipment, hearing aids, and burial plots. He was a representative of the family owned business of Stratton Baldwin, and the owner and operator of an Antique Model Popcorn Wagon that he and his wife would take to various events around the South. However, Tom’s most successful and important job in his life was husband, father and grandfather, and those roles he performed to perfection. In addition to collecting a variety of work experiences, Tom’s hobbies included collecting Mardi Gras doubloons, coins, stamps, books, cars, photographs, antiques and model trains; building doll house replicas of New Orleans homes (which, when they saw the finished work, the home owners always wanted to buy), building mini street cars (and turning that into a business of selling wooden model kits), photography, restoring antique cars, reading (almost always non-fiction), family road trips, and gardening. Never content to sit still, Tom was a member of several social groups: the Bienville Club, the Krewe of Carrollton, the Moose Lodge, ATO Fraternity, multiple garden societies and a Girl Scout Leader, hosting countless slumber parties for his daughters’ fellow scouts. His lifelong group of friends called themselves “The Troops,” and they spent countless hours laughing and talking at Cusimanos, eating oysters at Manales and spending weekends and summers at the Villa De La Verne. With a wink and a smile Tom enjoyed embellishing his list of occupations Walter Mitty style to include owner of a wide variety of businesses (more truth than fiction), a ship captain, an airline pilot, a forester and a brain surgeon. If asked, he would display the bayonet scar given to him by a German soldier in World War II (though he was only 13 when the war ended and the scar was from his appendectomy). While Tom was at Tulane, he met his future bride, Lucille Stratton Bailey, when she was just 9 years old, on the day her brother suffered a fatal accident. The only man who ever intimidated Tom was Lucille’s father, and Tom was afraid to ask Lucille out until after her father had passed away. Lucille was only 17 when they went on their first date, but Tom thought she was older. When she turned 18, Tom and Lucille eloped. Through thick and thin, they never left each other’s side for 58 years. At some point during their marriage they coined a phrase that reflected their love: they would joke with each other that they would meet at the east gate in Heaven when they both got there; after the darkness of being apart, they would meet again in the new dawn at the east gate to begin the next chapter together. So once more, until that moment: “See you at the east gate!” Semper Fi A memorial and celebration of Tom’s life will be held at a later date due to COVID-19.