Martha Kay Bailey

Martha Kay Rimes Bailey, 85, passed away peacefully in her sleep on February 6, 2023 from Alzheimer’s/dementia. Kay leaves her husband of 64 years Frederick “Jim” Clair Bailey, a younger brother Jerry (Candy) Rimes, three daughters: Wendy (Tim) Shannon, Beth Bailey (Basiel Keener) and Clair (Paul) Beaver and three granddaughters: Lane Beaver, Courtney Beaver and Keira Keener. She was born in Boynton Beach, Florida on September 2, 1937, and the first born of Oleta Videl Peters Rimes and Guy Owen Rimes. After moving to Mulberry, Florida, Kay attended and graduated from Mulberry High School where she was a cheerleader and basketball player. She enjoyed riding ponies as a young girl which transcended into a lifelong joy of horseback riding and owning horses on her horse farms, both with the name Sanctuary Farms, in Cleveland, Georgia and Kalispell, Montana. She attended St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing in Jacksonville, Florida and earned her RN degree when she met a navy corpsman, Frederick “Jim” Clair Bailey. They were married April 1958, and then the navy stationed them in Guam, California, Colorado, Rhode Island and Pensacola, Florida. Kay worked for Pensacola Public Health and was also a professor of nursing at Pensacola Junior College. When she and Jim “retired” to Kalispell, Montana, where they lived for over 20 years, she was active in St. Matthew’s Catholic Church and worked as an RN for Dr. David Mangold, P-AC at The Allergy & Asthma Center, as well as in accounting for Herberger’s department store. She enjoyed a lot of outdoor activities that Montana offers such as hiking, snowshoeing, river rafting and, of course, horseback riding. She volunteered for Back Country Horsemen of the Flathead and the annual The Event at Rebecca Farm, an equestrian event that raises money for cancer. She was a talented nurse and loving wife, mother, grandmother and mentor. She had a very generous, kind, and giving spirit, making every holiday and milestone special, as she was an incredible cook. Much of Kay’s family resides in Central Florida, but even more friends from the East coast to the West coast loved her and will miss her dearly. A private family celebration of life will be planned in the future. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to Back Country Horsemen of the Flathead, P.O. Box 1192, Colombia Falls, MT 59912.