Nancy Bailey

October 7, 1938 - July 24, 2021

Bailey, Nancy Claire, aged 82 years, passed away peacefully at AtlantiCare Hospital in Pomona, NJ on Saturday morning, July 24, 2021. Cape May has lost an active avid supporter. Nancy was born in Reading Pennsylvania October 7, 1938 to Warren and Mabel Hower, the oldest of three daughters - Nancy, Kay, and Joan. The family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Warren’s health in the mid-fifties. Nancy met her husband of 55 years, John Bailey, in the Fort Lauderdale High School band. She played tenor sax. He played drums. Nancy is a graduate of Fort Lauderdale High School, class of 1956. She has a bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Florida (1960) where she pledged to the Delta Gamma Sorority. She earned her master’s degree in Library Science at Columbia University (1964). Nancy and John opened the Baileywicke Leather Shop on the Cape May, NJ, Walking Mall in 1976 and immediately joined others in promoting the new Mall, Cape May’s “shoulder seasons,” and making Cape May the Christmas destination it has become. Together, they began the successful Great Cape May Footrace in 1979 (now in its 42nd year). She was a member of the “daisy chain” group that passed the books from the library in City Hall to the library on Ocean Street. She served as the first president of Cape May Stage working with Michael Laird to begin building that theater into what it is today. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (Cape May MAC) from 1998 through 2005. She was a commissioner on Cape May’s Historic Preservation Commission from 1990 - 2001 helping to mold the city into the beautiful historic village it is today. She enjoyed long walks, playing classics on the piano, reading mystery novels, watching old classic movies, studying local history, attending live theater (ie: Cape May Stage, East Lynn Theater Co.), solving crossword puzzles, playing Scrabble games with her family, and exploring mountain trails and waterfalls. She was an advocate for special needs children. She is survived by her husband, John; her sister Kay Hall; her niece Bonnie Hall Dissette and husband, Mark Dissette, and their children, Jeff, Joseph, Jenny, and Julie; her nephews Brooks, Brian, and Brent Heenan; and her niece Brenda Joan Heenan-Slusher. John has two surviving children who she loved dearly, Cassius Allen Shuman and Lynnette Anne Marshall. Relatives and friends will be received on August 5, 2021 (Thursday) from 10am – 11am in the Spilker Funeral Home, 815 Washington St., Cape May where Nancy’s memorial ceremony will begin at 11am. In lieu of flowers, please make a gift to the Fragile X Research Foundation, FRAXA https://www.fraxa.org/ Finding a cure for Fragile X, which has afflicted her grandnephew, Jeff Dissette, has long been her life’s passion. Info and condolences: spilkerfuneralhome.com