Ransom Bailey of Cedar Falls, Iowa
A Biographical Sketch By Julia Bailey
Ransom Bailey was born to Samuel Orwell Bailey and Grace Simpson Bailey on April 26, 1913, the first of three children. (David was born July 14, 1915, and Julia on July 23, 1919.)
Ransom probably went to the Manual Arts School until fourth grade, when he would have gone to the Central School on Clay Street in Cedar Falls. He was graduated from the Cedar Falls High School on Main Street in the spring of 1931, then enrolled at Iowa State Teachers College, where he was graduated in 1935 with a degree in Earth Science.
From the time they were old enough to work, both Ransom and David were busy with newspaper routes, working in a canning factory, delivering groceries, candling eggs, nearly anything to make money during the Depression. During his studies at I.S.T.C., Ransom took off during one winter term and worked the night shift in a filling station. It was a horrendous winter and Ransom was satisfied to go back to college in the spring.
Ransom was in teacher training—as was everyone—but he did not choose to teach. Instead he joined his father in the insurance and real estate business with an office at 208 Main Street. He joined the Rotary Club and was an active hunter and fisherman. When the U.S. entered World War II, he eventually tried to enlist in officers’ training, but was rejected.
In 1944, at age 31, Ransom was drafted and sent to Abilene, Texas, for basic training, which included instruction in typing. His unit was transported to North Africa and then to Italy, where he was a clerk in some medical service under an epidemiologist from Georgia. From that time on, Ransom was an authority on all matters medical.
Ransom’s letters home were full of his social activities. Being one of the older men, he was often in a fatherly position, especially helping the younger men to manage their money. He was amused but appalled when the GI’s behaved inappropriately in the LaScala Opera House in Milan.
Samuel Bailey died in 1945, soon after Ransom’s return from World War II. Ransom later moved their office to West Third Street, where he shared a building with Harold Anderson. His final office was on Melrose Drive. Getting there involved dealing with a one way street, going the wrong way for Ransom. Local policemen finally stopped him one day, saying, “Bailey, are you ever going to do this right?”
Ransom and Robert Johnson formed a partnership; after Johnson’s retirement, Ransom and Robert’s son, Terry, worked together until Ransom’s retirement in 1978.
Ransom’s retirement years were a continuation of his previous pleasures: enjoying the duck pond in good weather, always entertaining in his basement “pool hall.” The pool hall contained a regulation pool table, a wet bar, shower and toilet, a built in gas grill, and a storage room for his hunting and fishing gear. The friends who worked stopped in regularly on their way home, and those who were retired made it in a little earlier.
Ransom died at home, in the room where he was born, of liver and pancreatic cancer, on March 6, 1992. He was buried in the family polot in Fairview Cemetery, Cedar Falls.