“He’s always dancing, as you know,” said Paul Sisson, who’s known Cecil Bailey since they were young, and who is also a legion member.
Bailey celebrated his 100th birthday July 14 at the Haliburton Legion. The remarkable milestone attracted 107 guests, who came out to wish Bailey a happy birthday and to celebrate together.
Sisson called Bailey a “steady” member of the legion. Sisson and his wife would sometimes take him back to the Gardens of Haliburton after a social outing, instead of having Bailey call a taxi.
Bailey is a Second World War veteran, serving in Belgium, the Netherlands, England and Germany. He drove an airport crash tender and was almost shipped to Japan, but the Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki first.
Before the war, Bailey was a Haliburtonian, driving a 1939 Chrysler Royal as a 15-yearold with his friends in the passenger seat. The Chrysler was an exotic car back in the day, and was probably the best car in the County at the time. Bailey’s father, W.O. Bailey, owned the sawmill in town, so the family was well off. Haliburton was known for its logging industry, similar to other places in the region.
Bailey didn’t care much for rules as a teenager. When his dad found out he had been taking the car out, he took the rotor out of the distributor on advice from a friend. Bailey wasn’t going to let that stop him, he took the rotor out of a similar car and put it in his dad’s car and off he went, hitting the roads again.
Carmen Peters, 96, met Bailey in 1936, when Peters was around eight years old. His father worked for W.O. Bailey. “He was helping me out when we were growing up. And then I worked with him, before he went into the army,” said Peters.
Peters also touched on how the Bailey family was instrumental in building up Haliburton and Eagle Lake.
Mike Waller, president of the Haliburton Legion, said he met Bailey 20 years ago at a music event in the clubroom. He recalled an older gentleman coming in, and changing his shoes, but he couldn’t figure out why he was doing it. Bailey was getting ready to dance, and he danced with all of the ladies in the room. He danced the night away, something he is known for.
Waller said, “Cec is just a great guy. Just to sit down and talk to him and listen to his stories about his life has been fantastic.”
Bailey was also instrumental in bringing the train to Haliburton Highlands Secondary School. He also built six houses in Haliburton, with the sixth house starting when he was 83. He had a triple by-pass that year but remarkably continued building the house. Bailey built houses and worked around the Haliburton area for his father.
Gord Kidd & Friends helped ring in the celebrations. The band dedicated a couple of songs to Bailey and addressed him in between numbers.
Deputy mayor for Dysart et al, Walt McKechnie, and MP for HaliburtonKawartha Lakes-Brock, Jamie Schmale, were on hand.
Always dancing, Bailey still had the energy to cut a rug with daughter, Pearl Wood, at the party.
Wood has fond memories of growing up with her dad, who called her his ‘baby doll’.
“Certainly, my dad built every single house we lived in with his hands, saws, hammers, whatever. We may have lived in a little huddle before we got into the house he built, but he built all of our houses,” Wood said.
She added, “he’s always active. My dad never quit. No matter what he did. He was always moving.”
