In Memoriam
Marie Reisert Bailey

Marie Reisert Bailey passed away on August 8, 2007 at the age of 91. She was a native of Long Island, having spent her entire life, except for some years of school, in Valley Stream and Garden City. She was born in 1916 on a farm, one of seven contiguous farms owned by seven Reisert brothers. This farm was at the present location of Green Acres Shopping Center. She attended elementary school in Valley Stream and high school at St. Joseph Academy, Brentwood, graduating in 1932. She always cherished a picture of the members of her senior Latin class standing on the edge of a pond, holding their noses, and holding their Latin textbooks over the pond as if preparing to drop them into it. She obtained a bachelor's degree from the College of New Rochelle in 1936, and a master's degree in history from Fordham University in 1939.

During World War II, she worked as an analyst for the Hazeltine Corporation in Little Neck. Part of her duties involved making sure that a number of engineers had all the tools and equipment they needed to do their work. During World War II, an empty bottle had to be turned in for each bottle of beer purchased. She remembered spending one day going around Washington, D.C. trying to find a store that would sell a six-pack of beer without getting any empty bottles back, because one of the engineers really wanted a beer and had no empties to return, since he had just recently arrived in town! (She did eventually find a store that was willing to sell her a six-pack without receiving any empties).

In 1946, she married William F. Bailey, whom she had met at Hazeltine. She had two daughters, Marie and Elizabeth.

She was a member of the American Association of University Women. For many years she edited the bulletin of the U.S. Section of St. Joan's International Alliance. Until her declining health prevented her from doing so, she attended daily Mass and was active in the Rosary Society. She organized the committee that began the blood drives at St. Joseph Church. (In 1985, a picture was published in the Garden City News of the then-current blood drive committee: Marie Bailey, Msgr. Emil Wcela and Dr. James Morrell.) She was responsible for the bookrack at St. Joseph Church, and enjoyed this responsibility so much that she continued to manage the rack after her health prevented her from getting out of the house easily. She ordered magazines and books from home and organized other people to put them out on the bookrack.

Highly intelligent, she was always a voracious reader, and was especially interested in books about the Civil War and other history books. She was also very fond of Siamese cats.

Her husband, William F. Bailey, passed away in February, 1998. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Marie and Tony Greene, Fort Wayne, Indiana; her daughter Elizabeth Bailey, Garden City, New York and Florence, Alabama, and three grandchildren, Alexander Greene, Brooklyn, New York; Charles Greene, Mumbai, India, and Victoria Greene, College Station, Texas.