Bailey did not live to see that bridge dedicated. He died at the age of 68, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Lexington, about a week after suffering a stroke. He was buried next to his wife, Ann, in the Frankfort Cemetery.
BACCHUS, PERCIVAL L. (b. May 2, 1902, Virgin Islands, West Indies; d. June 3, 1962, Cincinnati, Ohio). Percival L. Bacchus was an African American medical doctor who practiced in Newport for more than three decades. He was born in the Virgin Islands, but when he was young his family moved to New Jersey. Bacchus attended Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tenn., and graduated in the late 1920s. He practiced for a short time in Nashville before coming to Kentucky, where he passed the Kentucky State Medical Examination and, on August 10, 1931, was licensed to practice. Bacchus was instrumental in revitalizing the long-dormant Newport Masonic Lodge PHA No. 120 (see African Americans). He served as master of the Newport Lodge No. 120 for many years. Meetings were held in the basement of his office at 341 Central Ave. The practice of medicine and the Masonic lodge were the two greatest passions of his life. In December 1955 Bacchus was tried in the Campbell Co. Circuit Court on a charge of performing an illegal abortion (see Birth Control). The jury failed to reach a verdict, and a second trial took place in April 1956. The second jury also failed to return a decision. In August 1956 the State Board of Health revoked Bacchus’s medical license on the grounds that he had “committed an unlawful abortion.” Bacchus was a 33rd Degree Mason, a Shriner, and the Illustrious Potentate of Aleikum Temple No. 96 in Covington. He died at General Hospital in Cincinnati in 1962 and was buried at Mary E. Smith Cemetery in Elsmere. “Bacchus, Dr. Percival L.,” Death Notices, CTS, June 6, 1962, 40. “Journey’s End, Bacchus, Dr. Percival L.,” CE, June 6, 1962, 24. Kentucky Board of Medical License Records, Louisville, Ky., March 25, 2004.
Theodore H. H. Harris
BAILEY, CLAY WADE (b. September 22, 1905, Little Sandy, Elliot Co., Ky.; d. February 19, 1974, Lexington, Ky.). Clay Wade Bailey, who has been called the dean of Kentucky journalists, was the son of George W. and Rebecca Weddington Bailey. Clay’s father was a Sandy Hook (Elliot Co.) lawyer and schoolteacher; he died of tuberculosis in 1912. The family’s children, three boys and a girl, were placed in the Louisville Masonic Widows and Orphans Home. Clay Wade attended grade school at the orphanage and then lived with relatives in Kansas during his high school years. He later graduated from Sue Bennett Junior College in London, Ky.
Reis, Jim. “Honoring Clay Wade Bailey,” KP, August 23, 2004. ———. “Omniscient Bailey Was Friend to All,” KP, February 27, 1984. Univ. of Kentucky. “Clay Wade Bailey.” www.uky.edu.
Jack Wessling
BAILEY, WILLIAM S. (b. February 10, 1806,
Clay Wade Bailey (left) and Governor Ned Breathitt, 1965.
Howard J. Henderson, bureau chief of the Courier Journal in Louisville, told of how he first met Bailey. It seems that at a campaign rally for Kentucky governor John C. W. Beckham (1900–1903, 1903–1907), Henderson saw the diminutive (fivefoot-two) Bailey approach the candidate and engage him in deep conversation about current events. Henderson was so impressed by the young man’s knowledge that he immediately gave him a job with his newspaper. In the 1930s, Bailey took a position with the United Press. He left that organization in 1938 to become a reporter in Covington for the Kentucky Post. He also wrote columns for the Lexington Herald and for the Evansville Press in Indiana. On May 12, 1939, Bailey married Ann Robison, who died eight years later of a cerebral hemorrhage. The couple had one child, a son Logan. Clay Wade Bailey covered Kentucky state government for the Kentucky Post and was said to have access to everyone there, so that he was able to write articles that no one else could even attempt. He called at least 150 people each morning, before making his rounds of Frankfort offices, where he exchanged stories and gathered the latest gossip. Bailey was a friend of everyone in state government, from the governor to the clerks and janitors. He had a photographic memory and also an encyclopedic knowledge of Kentucky history. He also possessed ithe uncanny ability to read upside down, namely government documents that were lying on officials’ desks. In 1970 Bailey received three of the greatest honors of his life. A Clay Wade Bailey Day was proclaimed at the capitol in Frankfort, he was asked to address all three branches of government (an unprecedented honor), and Kentucky governor Louie B. Nunn (1967–1971) named an Ohio River bridge after him. When learning of the bridge’s naming, Bailey quipped, “I just hope that with a name like that, it won’t fall into the Ohio River.”
Centerville, Ohio; d. February 20, 1886, Nashville, Tenn.). William Shreve Bailey, an abolitionist, an editor, and a proprietor of several antislavery newspapers, was the son of John and Rebekah Shreve Bailey. He married Caroline A. Withnall in Wheeling, Va. (now W.Va.), on December 13, 1827. Bailey was trained as a mechanic; in 1839 he moved his family to Newport, where he opened a machine shop. He wrote numerous articles in the Newport News that advocated abolition (see Abolitionists; Antislavery), thereby causing difficulties for the newspaper’s owner, a man named Ryan. Bailey was encouraged to purchase the newspaper and its press. Besides the Newport News, Bailey also published several other newspapers dedicated to antislavery, such as the Kentucky Weekly News, the Newport & Covington Daily News, and the Free South. Bailey’s sentiments gained the attention of other abolitionists, but in contrast to most of them, who were concerned about religious and moral issues, Bailey’s opposition to slavery was based on economic principles. He believed that all workers should be paid for their efforts. Prominent abolitionist John G. Fee thought Bailey lacked the intelligence and correct principles for abolition work, and Fee communicated his opinion to the American Missionary Association. Fee even refused to associate with Bailey. Bailey’s newspapers were constantly in need of financial help. In 1851 his office and presses where destroyed by fire. Proslavery Kentuckians also were pressuring his supporters in Cincinnati. Although Fee did not agree with Bailey’s efforts, he believed that the newspaper would be a useful tool in the antislavery efforts in Kentucky. In a rare instance of communication with Bailey, Fee recommended William Goodell, a Northern antislavery minister and writer, as a possible editor. In 1858 Bailey requested and received financial help for his Free South. In 1859, a few days after the John Brown raid at Harper’s Ferry, Va., a mob entered Bailey’s office and destroyed his presses and type. Bailey had the advantage of being in Newport, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, so in 1860 he brought suit in a Cincinnati court against some Campbell Co. residents for the destruction of his printing office. He was then warned to leave the state, but, ignoring the warnings, he continued to publish his paper. Bailey was arrested after the reappearance of the Free South, charged with incendiarism, and jailed. He was granted bail