Edna Bailey, 81, Cherry Hill teacher
When Edna Van Liew Bailey became one of the first four teachers granted a sabbatical year by the board of education in Cherry Hill, it was a mixed blessing.
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When Edna Van Liew Bailey became one of the first four teachers granted a sabbatical year by the board of education in Cherry Hill, it was a mixed blessing.
In that 1971-72 school year, the first-grade teacher at Malberg Elementary School took classes toward a master's degree in education at what was then Glassboro State College.
"Term papers and reading seemed to take up so much of my time, because I'd been away from studying so long," she told an interviewer.
"Plus," she said, "the pressure was on," because "my kids were waiting to see my marks!"
On Tuesday, June 18, Mrs. Bailey, 81, a public elementary schoolteacher in Cherry Hill from the 1960s into the 1990s, died of complications from a stroke at Silver Care Center there, where she had lived for the last 12 years.
Born in North Brunswick, N.J., she graduated from Highland Park High School in 1949 and earned a bachelor's degree in education at Glassboro State in 1953.
She married Lyndoll Bailey, a Glassboro classmate, before the end of their senior year, and the two graduates went to the West Coast for his naval officer training, their son, Bruce, said.
"My father was also an educator, and after he left the Navy in 1956-57, they lived in Delaware until he got his master's" and moved back to South Jersey, their son said.
"My father's career paralleled hers, as a school principal in Cherry Hill" at Brainerd Elementary School, now Carusi Middle School.
They agreed they would never work in the same school, and never did, their son said.
In 1963, Mrs. Bailey began her Cherry Hill career teaching first and second graders at Kingston Elementary School. She then taught those grades at Malberg and later at Thomas Paine. Malberg now is as the school district administration building.
While at Paine, her son said, she was a coach for Cherry Hill students competing in Olympics of the Mind, now known as Odyssey of the Mind, a national competition for gifted students begun in New Jersey schools by teachers at Glassboro State.
"Toward the end of her career," he said, "she became a remedial specialist, helping kids who had special needs in math and reading.
"She would give them special help outside the classroom rather than having a classroom of her own."
Besides her son, Mrs. Bailey is survived by daughter Susan and a grandson. Her husband died in 1993.
A life celebration was set from 10:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday, June 22, at Inglesby/Givnish Funeral Home, 600 E. Main St., Maple Shade, before a memorial service there.
Donations may be made to the Edna and Lyndoll Bailey Future Teachers Scholarship Fund, c/o TD Bank, 180 N. Black Horse Pike, Bellmawr, N.J. 08031.
Condolences may be offered to the family at www.inglesbygivnish.com.