Mary Em Bailey

Mary Em (Fretts) Bailey, age 77, died on Thursday, January 25, 2018 at ProMedica Toledo Hospital due to complications from surgery. She was surrounded by loving family members. She was born on December 10, 1940 in Cincinnati, Ohio to parents Joseph and Hannah Fretts. After graduating from Bay High School, Bay Village, Ohio in 1959, she crafted a life dedicated to family and community. She served as a firefighter and EMT with the Lakeside Volunteer Fire Department, a dispatcher for the Ottawa County Sheriffs Department, an employee of Smiths Market in Lakeside, and worked alongside her mother and father in Bolte Real Estate agency. As a longtime resident of Lakeside and Port Clinton, Ohio, she was a member of Lakeside United Methodist Church in which she was a member of Womens Circle, the choir, and the religious education program as a Sunday School superintendent. She was also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, served as a Girl Scout troop leader, delivered Meals on Wheels for many years, and was a proud supporter of the Coast Guard in which her husband Robert Bailey served and the Danbury High School marching band in which her children participated. Her hobbies included handcrafting items from ceramics to quilts to garments with love, lingering over laughter-filled conversations with friends, caring for her four-legged family members, and backyard birdwatching. She is survived by children Edward Thayer (Liz Patras), Kim Rankin (Richard Rankin), R. Clinton Thayer (Robyn Perrin), grandchildren Jonathan (Allie), Wesley, Bailee (Jeremy), Andrew, Peter, Benjamin (Kristine), Josiah, Nathaniel, Eleanor, and Vivian and great-grandchild Blaise. She was preceded in death by parents Joseph and Hannah Fretts, husband Robert Bailey, and infant great-grandchildren James and Jonathan. Visitation will be held at 12:30 pm and a memorial service will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 17, 2018 at Neidecker, LeVeck & Crosser Funeral Home, 7755 E Harbor Rd, Lakeside Marblehead, OH 43440. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory by sending a check to the Danbury Township Volunteer Firefighters Association, P.O. Box 336, Lakeside-Marblehead, Ohio 43440. Funeral Home: Neidecker-LeVeck & Crosser Funeral Home - Peninsula Chapel 7755 East Harbor Road Lakeside-Marblehead, OH US 43440