{"id":14932,"date":"2026-03-26T14:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=14932"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:06:17","slug":"princess-anne-alumna-returns-library-book-67-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/princess-anne-alumna-returns-library-book-67-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Anne alumna returns library book 67 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Emily Winstead<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d returned to Princess Anne High School after 67 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Princess Anne High School alumna Faye Bailey came back to PAHS this school year to return an overdue library book. The catch? The book, \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov\u201d by Fyodor Dostoevsky, was overdue by about 67 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always loved books, and I collect books,\u201d Bailey explained. \u201cI was looking at the big books that I hadn\u2019t read, and I said, \u2018Oh my goodness, I checked this out in high school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When she arrived at PAHS, she met principal Ryan Schubart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I drove up one day, your principal was getting out of his car. I said, \u2018I think I owe you a lot in overdue fees,\u201d she laughed. Schubart offered to let her keep the book, but she declined.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at when the book was due, it was March,\u201d she explained. \u201cI turned 16 on Feb. 8, and had declared I was going to run away from home.\u201d She did, and went to Miami. Bailey said she found a room to rent and was quickly hired at a local hotel.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my books travel with me when I make a move,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I just had boxes and boxes of books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey\u2019s passion for reading started early in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to take the bus to downtown Norfolk with a friend of mine, and we would go to the library,\u201d she said. Now, her books line the walls of her house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got four or five hundred books,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a wall of bookcases built to accommodate my books in each home.\u201d She added that it was easy to find books at used book sales and book clubs.<\/p>\n

After traveling to Miami, Bailey went to North Carolina, where she lived with her grandmother and finished high school. \u201cI graduated from school in North Carolina in a little bitty school where I had 37 in my graduating class,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t Bailey\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was interesting, and I hated it,\u201d she laughed. \u201cIt was straight and narrow, and people were so methodical.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, within two weeks, there\u2019s a little notice in the paper that the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was offering summer internships in orchestra management,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cSo I talked my way right into that program, and I went there with four other students.\u201d<\/p>\n

After only a short time at the internship, Bailey said she knew it was the place for her. \u201cI knew I was home. I loved the people, I loved the place, and I loved the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she said. She then moved to Florida, where she worked as the general manager of the Florida Orchestra.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After 40 years working in the arts, she was appointed to the State Arts Commission by the Governor in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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, \u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve also served on panels to evaluate grant proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey also spent time living in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the first woman to serve on our town council in New Jersey,\u201d she said. Bailey went on to explain some of the challenges of being a woman in the 1970s, working in a male-dominated field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very determined,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you want something, you go and get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Bailey wants students to try to make a positive difference in the world every day. \u201cDo all you can do. Make the world a better place,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n

Emily Winstead is a Princess Anne High School junior and assistant editor of <\/em>The Page<\/em><\/a>, the school\u2019s student news site.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":14919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-student-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14933,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932\/revisions\/14933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}