It is with great sadness that we learned of the recent death of Bernard Bailey.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/bernard-bailey.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1\" "\\"bernard")
We first met Mr. Bailey in 1997, when, recently retired at the age of 81 and looking to be of service, he came to the library. \u00a0\u00a0He chose to work in our Special Collections Center—well before it was renovated—and began indexing, by hand, the deaths and marriages in the 1950s newspaper microfilm.<\/p>\n
Seven years later, he had clocked in two-thousand<\/em> volunteer hours and we couldn\u2019t remember what we had ever done without him.<\/p>\n Mr. Bailey was a veteran of the second World War.\u00a0 He enlisted in the Army Air Force on October 16, 1940, and completed his service on February 27, 1946. His stories and memorabilia have been archived in as part of our Center\u2019s World War II\/Korean War Oral History Project.\u00a0<\/p>\n He and his family\u00a0 moved to Davenport\u00a0 in 1961 and worked for the Phillips Company as a distributor until he retired and began working for Foreman & Clark, a men\u2019s clothing store.\u00a0 The store closed in 1996, but Mr. Bailey wasn\u2019t ready to sit around and do nothing—so he came to us and compiled several indexes of obituaries and marriage announcements.<\/p>\n He was one of our most loyal and generous volunteers.\u00a0 He was also a kind man, a gentleman and our dear friend.<\/p>\n We will miss him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is with great sadness that we learned of the recent death of Bernard Bailey. We first met Mr. Bailey in 1997, when, recently retired at the age of 81 and looking to be of service, he came to the … Continue reading