Audrey Vonona Bailey

With snow impassable and 50 degrees below zero, Audrey Vonona Bailey was born on December 27th, 1916 in the Rice Ranch Bunkhouse three and one-half miles east of Ten Sleep Wyoming. Audrey was raised along with three brothers, Marvin James, Lester Ivan "Pat" and Lee Arley Davis on the Triangle E. Davis ranch by her parents Lester James "Smilo" and Audrey Odessa Davis.
Grades 1 through 12, Audrey graduated as valedictorian and prom queen from the Ten Sleep school system where she was employed after graduation as a substitute teacher for 2 years. Growing up on the Davis ranch, Audrey enjoyed livestock, gardening, field work and wildlife in general.
The summer of 1934 Audrey and a girlfriend caught a ride to San Francisco to attend the World's Fair. Left alone and running out of money, she called home and arrange to have relatives house her till bus fair arrived to bring her home ending her first adventure away from the Ten Sleep Valley.
Audrey then left home to work in the bean field surrounding the sanitarium in Basin Wyoming in the summer of 1936. The winter of 1937, she worked part time at the sanitarium just south of Basin and that summer found her back in the fields and still part time in the sanitarium. That fall due to overwhelming demand Audrey worked full time long hours at the sanitarium until the spring of 1938. Smilo and Odessa arrange to have Audrey enroll at the University of Wyoming in Laramie where she met Joseph Spencer Bailey, a civil engineering student at Laramie. On September 5th, 1941, they became husband and wife in Kimball Nebraska.
WW2 demanded Joseph's immediate enlistment and he trained in London England for LST Amphibious Operations. During his first deployment, their first child, Vonona was born. Audrey joined a caravan of other military wives, following their husbands from coast to coast. During his fourth deployment, their second child, Joe was born. Immediately following Joseph's discharge January of 1946, the couple returned to Wyoming University and graduating in 1947. Six weeks prior to graduation, they welcomed their third child, Bradley. Before graduation, Joseph was hired by Portland Cement Association, moving the family of five to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where Audrey resided the next 67 years.
Audrey was an avid skier. She and a few others spent much of their time in winter packing snow to ski at what was to become the Meadow Lark Ski Area off highway 16 in the Bighorn Mountains; she was taught by her father, Smilo, to skate and spent hours teaching Vonona, Joe, and Bradley to skate as her dad had taught her. Smilo and Audrey could dance on skates with the best of them as could Vonona. Audrey purchased a Pioneer Hunting license. Every year entering the drawings for a moose and a Rocky Mountain big horn sheep permit, successfully obtaining a moose permit after 25 years. While hunting in Jackson Hole, with son-in-law, Bill Scott as her guide, Audrey bagged her first bull with one shot with her new 270 off Fall Creek Road. Her husband Joe, a professional fly fisherman, taught Audrey, with patience and perseverance, to became a proficient fly fisherman.
Audrey was owner of Driftwood Activities, a successful arts and crafts business; an Amway distributor; Vanda Beauty salesperson and Consultant and a talented seamstress.
Audrey was a devoted charter member of Masters Chapter Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, lastly receiving a 53 year pin; she was president and secretary treasurer, then scrapbooker for each newly inaugurated presidents reign of X-JWC Club; having highly skilled partners, Audrey became a very successful marathon bridge player in numerous clubs; a member in Cheyenne Garden Club and Cheyenne Botanical Gardens; she was instrumental in organizing Holly-Do-Its'; Sandwich Club; hosted many Chamber of Commerce Welcome Wagons; member of Elks Lodge Number 660; member of Country Club; member of Airport Golf Course Club, Inc.; AMVETS Post 10; Wyoming State Mineral and Gem Society, Inc. as secretary; the Cheyenne Mineral and Gem Society holding the position of secretary treasurer with husband Joe as president for several years; member of Wyoming Archaeological Society, Inc., the Cheyenne Chapter; Natrona County Rock Hound Club; Archaeological Mineral and Gem Society. Together, they did a lot of travelling while rock hunting and attending PCA conventions, where they often hosted the hospitality rooms.
Audrey was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Joseph Spencer Bailey; parents, Lester James and Audrey Odessa Davis; a younger brother, Lester Ivan "Pat" Davis; son, Joseph James Bailey; and son-in-law, Donald K. "Bill" Scott.
Audrey is survived by daughter, Vonona E. "Sam" Scott; son, Bradley Dawn Bailey; brothers, Marvin James and wife Dorothy Davis of Otis Orchards, Washington and Lee Arley and wife Peggy Davis of Ten Sleep; daughter-in-law, Linda Rae Hendrickson Bailey; grandchildren: Clay Scott, Shelly Scott, Kelly and husband Barney Holmes, Jayne and husband Ken Chambers, Wayne Scott, Jodi and husband Drew McGhee, Shane Scott, Trina Ann Bailey and her partner Sherry Twilleger, Jolyn and husband Bill Webber and Ramie and husband Marty McIntosh; 15 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends.
Viewing and visitation will be held Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 1:45p.m.
Services will be 2 p.m. Sunday, December 7th at Wiederspahn-Radomsky Chapel with Chaplain Delbert Hansen officiating. Interment to take place at a later date in Ten Sleep. Honorary pallbearers will be Audrey's much loved grandchildren as well as all her great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in remembrance of Audrey Vonona Bailey to the entity of your choice.
Audrey, you will be sorely missed and never forgotten...
Funeral services will be webcast live at www.wrcfuneral.com .