Elbert Maxwell "Beetle" Bailey, 73, of Teter Lake Community, Route 1, Montrose, died Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011, in Davis Memorial Hospital, following a brief illness.
He was born June 7, 1938, at Alexander, Upshur County, a son of the late Garnet Elbert and Lillian May Harlan Bailey.
On Oct. 3, 1959, he married the former Mary Ellen Poling, who preceded him in death on Nov. 4, 2007.
Surviving are one daughter, Deborah Simmons and husband, Charles, of Philippi; two granddaughters, Charlene Simmons of Birch River and Patricia Simmons of Philippi; two brothers, Howard Bailey and Jeff Bailey, both of Richwood; three sisters, Loretta Wright of Summersville, Ethel Seabolt of Fruitland Park, Florida, and Rosetta Lima of The Villages, Florida.
He was also preceded in death by three sisters, Florence Isabel "Bell" Sarapa, Geraldine Marie Bailey and Wilma Pearl Bailey.
Mr. Bailey was a veteran of the Korean Conflict serving nearly nine years with the U.S. Army. He was a retired coal mine electrician having been in employed in the Kitt Energy mine and with their successors in the Philippi operation. He had remained active in farming until just recently. He was a member of Laurel Mountain Post 410, Veterans of Foreign Wars at Belington and was a member of Mt. Zion Church of the Brethren.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 5, from Schoonover-Stemple Funeral Chapel, 609 Crim Ave. in Belington. The Rev. Larry Poling will officiate and interment will follow in Central Chapel Cemetery where military rites will be conferred by Barbour Post 44 American Legion and the WVARNG, Camp Dawson. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., the funeral hour, on Friday.
Schoonover-Stemple Funeral Chapel is entrusted with the arrangements.
