1923
Lois
2010
Lois Helen Bailey
March 11, 1923 — March 27, 2010
Lois Helen (Hemler) Bailey died Saturday March 27, 2010 in Lander Wyoming at the Westward Heights Care Center. She was 87. Lois was born on March 11, 1923 in Billings, Montana. She was the daughter of Vincent A. Hemler and Lillian Angelina (Newman) Hemler. As a child she lived in the small village of Silesia, Montana. During her primary-school years the family lived in Montana while her father worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps Indian Department, Cheyenne Indian Reservation. When he transferred to the Shoshone Indian Reservation the family resided in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, and Lois attended the Fremont County Vocational High School in Lander. After graduation she attended the University of Wyoming at Laramie. She was a member of Chi Omega sorority. It was at the university that she met her future husband, Paul M. Bailey also a student at the university. After two years of pre-nursing courses, and because of World War II, she transferred to the University of Colorado Nursing School at Denver, Colorado and completed her Bachelor Degree in Science and earned her Registered Nurse degree. She then joined the Army Nurse Corps and was sent as a Second Lieutenant to the station hospital at Camp Crowder, Missouri.
When Captain Paul M. Bailey returned from the South Pacific theater they were married at Camp Crowder. For the two years while her husband attended the University of Iowa for his graduate degree in Actuarial Science, Lois worked as an RN at the University of Iowa Medical Hospital. They moved to Denver and started their family of three children; during this time she developed a love of flower gardening. In the late 1960's the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. For a decade Lois took decoupage lessons from Hiram Manning and under his instruction created many pieces of classical decoupage. After her husband retired from the John Hancock Insurance Company they moved to Eastman at Grantham, New Hampshire. There she found the wildflowers inspiring, and she completed hundreds of drawings of wildflowers, primarily using colored pencils. She felt that she had been given a great gift late in life and gave many of her pictures to friends. She took drawing lessons from instructors at Lebanon College and was inspired to write a children's book about her experiences in Tunisia. She was an accomplished knitter, and she knit shawls and caps for premature babies in Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital, Lebanon NH. In the last years of life she and Paul returned to Lander, and she continued drawing the wildflowers of Wyoming until she died. She was a fifty year plus member of the Unity Chapter of the Order of Eastern Stars, Denver, Colorado. She was predeceased by her husband Paul in June, 2008. She is survived by son William V. Bailey and daughter-in-law Ellen Marchewka Bailey of West Lebanon NH; daughter Mary Jean Hamdi and Ammar Hamdi of Sbeitla, Tunisia; daughter Anna Lynne Bailey of Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates; one sister Jean H. Patik of Lander, Wyoming; six grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. She has requested no services. Her body was cremated, and her remains are to be buried at the Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery in Evansville, Wyoming. Lois was a charter member of the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Research Center in Austin, Texas. If her friends wish to send memorials please send them to:
Help for Health Bus
PO Box 73
Lander, Wyoming 82520
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