By Emily Winstead

Princess Anne High School alumna Faye Bailey came back to PAHS this school year to return an overdue library book. The catch? The book, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, was overdue by about 67 years.

“I always loved books, and I collect books,” Bailey explained. “I was looking at the big books that I hadn’t read, and I said, ‘Oh my goodness, I checked this out in high school.’”

When she arrived at PAHS, she met principal Ryan Schubart.

“When I drove up one day, your principal was getting out of his car. I said, ‘I think I owe you a lot in overdue fees,” she laughed. Schubart offered to let her keep the book, but she declined.

Bailey explained that she left Virginia Beach when she turned 16, which led her to take the book with her and be unable to return it.

“If you look at when the book was due, it was March,” she explained. “I turned 16 on Feb. 8, and had declared I was going to run away from home.” She did, and went to Miami. Bailey said she found a room to rent and was quickly hired at a local hotel.

She and the book traveled with her up and down the East Coast until it ended up in her current library. Her books, she explained, were one of the things she took with her when she left home at 16.

“All my books travel with me when I make a move,” she said. “So I just had boxes and boxes of books.”

Bailey’s passion for reading started early in her life.

“I used to take the bus to downtown Norfolk with a friend of mine, and we would go to the library,” she said. Now, her books line the walls of her house.

“I’ve got four or five hundred books,” she said. “I’ve had a wall of bookcases built to accommodate my books in each home.” She added that it was easy to find books at used book sales and book clubs.

After traveling to Miami, Bailey went to North Carolina, where she lived with her grandmother and finished high school. “I graduated from school in North Carolina in a little bitty school where I had 37 in my graduating class,” she explained.

This wasn’t Bailey’s first time living in North Carolina; when she was first born, she lived there with her grandmother for some time. Her grandmother took care of her while her mother was building airplane engines in Cherry Point, North Carolina, during World War II.

After finishing high school, Bailey moved to New York, New Jersey and Maryland with her first husband. There, she went to college while caring for her children. She decided that once her youngest child started school, she would begin attending university. At first, Bailey was taking one class at a time, but she decided to bump it up and graduated with honors when she was 33.

While she was in college, Bailey started as a political science major and dreamed of becoming a lawyer. She did an internship with a judge in Baltimore.

“It was interesting, and I hated it,” she laughed. “It was straight and narrow, and people were so methodical.” After completing this internship, Bailey returned to her college advisor and explained that she no longer wanted to attend law school. Her real passion was the arts, but financial concerns had kept her from seriously considering a career in the field.

“All of a sudden, within two weeks, there’s a little notice in the paper that the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was offering summer internships in orchestra management,” Bailey said. “So I talked my way right into that program, and I went there with four other students.”

After only a short time at the internship, Bailey said she knew it was the place for her. “I knew I was home. I loved the people, I loved the place, and I loved the atmosphere.”

The internship led to Bailey getting a job as the assistant to the general manager of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. After working at the symphony for six years, she was hired by the League of American Orchestras as Director of Orchestra Services.

“I traveled all over the country all the time, setting up workshops and offering consulting. I did that for a few years, and I got tired of traveling,” she said. She then moved to Florida, where she worked as the general manager of the Florida Orchestra.

After a few years in Florida, Bailey moved back to Virginia. She took a job as general manager of the Virginia Opera Company. From there, she became a consultant for nonprofit art organizations.

After 40 years working in the arts, she was appointed to the State Arts Commission by the Governor in 2013.

“I was on the State Arts Commission for five years, when the governor appointed me to that, so I worked with all the arts organizations in the state, ” she said. “I’ve also served on panels to evaluate grant proposals.”

Bailey also spent time living in New Jersey.

“I was the first woman to serve on our town council in New Jersey,” she said. Bailey went on to explain some of the challenges of being a woman in the 1970s, working in a male-dominated field.

“When I went to my first meeting as a town council person, everybody else, all the men had name plates in front of them. There was not one for me.” This was because, at the time, the code only specified the requirements for councilmen. After talking to her fellow council members, she got the problem fixed.

“I am very determined,” she said. “When you want something, you go and get it.”

Bailey remains active, supporting visual, performing and art organizations, and volunteering when she can. Now 83, she still swims 18 laps three times a week and plays the piano every day. She also takes time to make things like picking up litter part of her everyday routine, something she advises PAHS students to do.

Beyond that, Bailey wants students to try to make a positive difference in the world every day. “Do all you can do. Make the world a better place,” Bailey said.

Emily Winstead is a Princess Anne High School junior and assistant editor of The Page, the school’s student news site.