Jane Bailey, One of Morro Bay's Greatest Community Leaders, Dies

by Jack McCurdy

Jane Bailey, one of the first community leaders to organize residents in the 1970s to stop the kind of development that would threatened to destroy Morro Bay as we know it and the "driving force" behind the founding and construction of the first community-owned Morro Bay public library, has died at age 95. She died on November 30 in Carmichael, CA, where she had lived near her daughter, Phyllis Lochelt, after her husband, Don, died in 1999.

From left to right—Grace Melton, Gene Shelton and Jane Bailey

She also was instrumental in the founding of Morro Bay Tomorrow, which was formed in the early 1970s primarily to fight the City Council's approval of a 375-space recreational vehicle park on 25 acres between Morro Bay High School and the ocean.

The plan also called for a beachfront road from Highway 41 north to the Beach Tract. The group was led by Jane Bailey, Willard McGonagill (an architect and former member of the City Planning Commission), Jane's husband, Don Bailey (a retired university dean), as well as Joe Giannini (widely considered the father of Morro Bay's tradition of community activism since even before the city was incorporated in 1964), and former mayor Gene Shelton, among others. Members of Morro Bay Tomorrow sued the city, arguing the project was in conflict with the city's General Plan. And they won. (See A Brief History of Morro Bay Citizens in Action)

Jane Horton Bailey was born in Chicago on Mother's Day, May 14, 1916, to Frances and Ralph Horton. The Hortons lived in Milwaukee and Rochester, NY, during her childhood.

Jane Bailey came to San Luis Obispo with her parents and older brother Chad in 1929, immediately following the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.

She was graduated from San Luis Obispo High School in 1934. She was confirmed in St. Stephens Episcopal Church in San Luis Obispo. In 1938, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1941, she married Donald Ward Bailey, and they settled in Morro Bay for the duration of World War II, as he directed the American Red Cross office at Camp Roberts. After the war, their home became Sacramento, where he became dean of students at Sacramento State College until his retirement in 1971, when the family returned to Morro Bay.

Both Jane and Don were instrumental in the construction of Morro Bay's first county library branch building (1982-86). They and other residents raised about $130,000 to build the library at its present location, 625 Harbor St. They were able to build the library with what many would consider a relatively small amount of money because of the many in-kind donations from residents and its construction on city-owned property. 

Jude Sanner Long was among those who contributed significantly to the founding and construction of the library. She was assistant and branch manager of the library for almost 35 years when it was in rented quarters at 410 Morro Bay Boulevard, where Castaways thrift store is now located, and after the new library opened. She retired as librarian in December, 2009.

Long said many residents contributed to the founding and construction of the new Morro Bay library but that Jane Bailey was "the driving force" that brought it all to fruition. 

Shelton, mayor of Morro Bay from 1976-78 and 1980-82 and one of Morro Bay's most effective leaders, had this to say about Jane: "Morro Bay lost a community giant when Jane Bailey passed away. She was a promoter and protector of all things good in the city, on the bay, and along the coastline. Her leadership and advocacy promoted reasonable planning and building in Morro Bay. Her intimate knowledge about local history offered us insightful glimpses about our community before and after incorporation and her wonderful book about the sea otter saved the otter from extinction while it helped to provide a sanctuary along the central coast  for the endangered mammal.  

"Jane Bailey was a respected leader in Morro Bay on planning and density issues, she was instrumental in the Friends of the Library in which she led the successful effort to build our new library.  Most of all, Jane Bailey was a wonderful, giving neighbor and a truly good person. We all should feel the emptyness  resulting in her passing." 

Jane Bailey wrote two books on the California sea otter, and in 1982 coauthored with Dorothy L. Gates a book on the history of Morro Bay entitled Morro Bay's Yesterdays: Vignettes of Our City's Lives & Times.

Jane Bailey is survived by children David Bailey and his wife, Margaret, of Sequim, WA; Phyllis Lochelt of Carmichael, CA, and Kit Bailey of Nevada City, CA; four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Long and Henriette Groot, former Coastal Alliance on Plant Expansion (CAPE) board president, are exploring having a memorial service for Jane in Morro Bay sometime in January.

Contact Jack McCurdy
Great Horned Owl Image on Banner by Cleve Nash