Emmanuel Bailey

Saranac Lake, N.Y. – Emmanuel R. “Manny” Bailey, formerly of Lake Clear and Bloomingdale, died Tuesday March 6, 2018. He was 98.

Mr. Bailey was a World War II veteran of the U.S. Merchant Marines, a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, and the founder and former owner of the Arrow Paper Company, Inc., in Groton, Connecticut, before moving permanently to the Adirondacks in 1974.

He was born on December 28, 1919 in Clayton, New York, the son of Eugene P. and Christine (Belleville) Bailey, one of 11 children. In Clayton, the family lived on their farms on East Line Road.

Sixty-three years after leaving Clayton High School in the ninth grade, Mr. Bailey was awarded his high school diploma based on the experiences and training he gained in the military and engineers’ school. He was 80 years old when awarded his diploma at a special ceremony in Clayton.

Mr. Bailey left Clayton in 1937 to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (known as the CCC), a depression-era jobs program aimed at reforestation, and was sent to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He became interested in the CCC when one of his brothers served at CCC camps in the Adirondacks at Wanakena.

In 2011, Mr. Bailey was featured in a book about the history of the CCC camps in the Adirondacks titled “Adirondack Civilian Conservation Corps Camps: History, Memories and Legacy of the CCC,” by Marty Podskotch.

After leaving the CCC he spent two summers sailing the Great Lakes on iron ore freighters for the Pittsburg Steamship Line. He was licensed as a chief engineer of steamships.

Mr. Bailey then enlisted in the Merchant Marines in 1939 and attended officers’ training school in Connecticut. During World War II he sailed the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea on ships carrying gasoline for airplanes used in the war effort. He was commissioned as an officer in 1942 and honorably discharged two years later.

While in Connecticut he met Irene Silva, whom would become his wife of 40 years. She died in 1987.

In Groton, Connecticut, he founded and operated the Arrow Paper & Supply Company, which sold paper, restaurant and janitorial supplies. It was a successful business that he sold in 1974 when he and his wife moved to a camp they built on Fish Creek, off Upper Saranac Lake.

Mr. Bailey was an auxiliary member of the Connecticut State Police and carried his badge in his wallet until his passing.

Mr. Bailey grew up on a depression-era farm without modern conveniences and recounted many stories of frigid trips to draw water from a well, or food from a smokehouse or root cellar. He was an accomplished carpenter and woodsman who loved the outdoors, animals, driving long distances and dancing.

He is previously deceased by his parents, Eugene P. and Christine Bellville, and his wife Irene; four brothers, Joseph (an infant), Richard E. Bailey, Bruce P. Bailey and H. Gordon Bailey; four sisters, Jean Marie Moore, Armelia Rose Halbmaier, Sr. Christine Helen Bailey Capalbo and Sylvia Bailey Cory.

Mr. Bailey is survived by two daughters, Lesley B. Lyon and husband Richard Lyon, of Saranac Lake, and Cecily Bailey and husband Thomas Bergin, of Round Lake; one brother Peter E. Bailey, of Watertown; and a sister, Patricia A. Doldo and Husband John Doldo of Watertown; three grandchildren, Richard S. Lyon of Lake Clear, Douglas M. Lyon of Peru, and Heather Wells of Berlin; four great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Calling hours will take place at the Fortune-Keough Funeral Home on Sunday, March 11, 2018 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 11:00 AM on Monday March 12, 2018 at St. John's Church.in Lake Clear, with Rev. Patrick Ratigan officiating. Burial will take place at St. John's Cemetery Lake Clear in Lake Clear in the spring.

Contributions in his memory can be made to Alzheimer’s Association, Northeastern New York Chapter, 4 Pine West, Plaza, Suite 405, Albany, New York 12205. Family and friends can also share their memories and sign the online guestbook at fortunekeoughfuneralhome.com.