At first, it all seems just a bad dream...I'll wake up, and he'll still be there, teaching, laughing, babbling, all stressed and excited at the same time...the day will fly by, as usual, and students will flock home or to hang out with friends, and they'll hear him call out: "Love ya, mean it, DON'T DO DRUGS!" as they go...
Why was it so hard to see that he'd go like he did? Sure, he was fun-loving, he laughed much, he seemed to have a light heart. Why didn't I see it??? His sadness, how he was really drowning?
Eric...Eric Bailey, only 40 years old. God! I'm already more than half his life span at 23 years old. 40 years old and...no more. And yet, still, no less. He is no less to me and thus will always be.
"O, Captain, my Captain...fallen, cold and dead!"
No...! It's not only a bad dream...it's a cursed nightmare from wicked Hell! And this time, this time, I cannot wake up!!!
I worry about his own children, his boy and his girl...what about them? How will they cope without Daddy? How will they go on? How will they reguard this monstrous tradgety? They're in their own nightmare...their own hell...
And his students, his other children...what hell are they in???
Memories are all that's left, sweet memories of my Captain...
The way he laughed, the way he hugged, the way he walked, the way he spoke...the way he was. And yet...he was just a man, scared, lost, hurting. And so like a man, he hid it away from this world.
I have so many favorite memories of him. Like the time I accidently "ran over" him in my chair and he pretended to be hurt. I couldn't for the life of me stop laughing! And the time he read my theater inventory to my Theater III/IV class giggling his butt off!
He and I used to tell each other "dirty jokes" too that I can't write out or God would smite me. He used to call me "little girl" all the time and "squirrell-bait", too! Geez, "squirrell-bait" is a name only Mr. Eric Bailey would come up with!
I remember he was hurt when I didn't take his Theater IV class, but Mr. Shaw messed that one up for me as I couldn't take ASL III and Theater IV together--they were during the very same block class, A-2!
Once, when I was absent from his class the previous day, he found me in the cafeteria line, stopped me, and said, "Where were you yesterday, little girl?" He geniunely sounded hurt. I had been sick the day before but I promised him I wouldn't miss his class anymore. I did my best not to.
The day that I graduated...a day I will never forget... (May 25, 2000--my 18th birthday, no less!) he waited for me and greeted me when I came out of the Super Pit. He gave me a card from him. "I'll never forget Annie in a plane crash! Love, Eric" it said, among other very sweet things. "Annie in a plane crash" was something I improvised in class one morning in Theater II. Bailey loved it and told friends and other students about it! I pretended I was a child star singing "Tomorrow" as our fictious plane we were all was going down!
I guess why I love him so much (well, there are countless reasons why I love him) was because he and his class helped me get through all my personal hell when my parents divorced and neglected me for almost 3 years while I was a Sophmore-Senior at Denton High School. He gave me a reason to live and to want to live.
In the 2 years after I graduated, before I had to move, I visited him whenever I could. We would literally hold our own parties and laugh/joke fests back there in his office; sometimes, it became so wild that Ms. Shaw would come back there to quiet us down!
Eric was so good to me and he cared about me as no other teacher did. We could talk about almost anything together. I think I'll miss the two of us laughing together the most though, laughing together at our own jokes and lives for 7 straight unforgetable, wonderful, magical years!
Miss yahs, Bailey! I love you forever--please do not forget me!!!
Your "little girl" and "squirrell bait",
Celia Foster
Monday, November 14, 2005
My life will NEVER, EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!!!
Denton theater director dies
Eric Bailey, 40, acclaimed for turning Denton High into competitive program
07:23 AM CST on Monday, November 14, 2005
By Ava Thomas Benson / Staff Writer
Eric Martin Bailey, director of Denton High School's Theatre Arts Department, was found dead in his home Sunday morning. He was 40.
Eric Bailey
Bailey's teaching career in the Denton school district began at Calhoun Middle School in 1997. He moved into his role at Denton High the following year and has taken the school's one-act play to University Interscholastic League state competition four times in the past eight years. Bailey, a popular teacher, is credited with making Denton High's theater program competitive.
Russell Cox, a Denton High junior, said Bailey was a key figure at the high school.
"It's like the death of an era," Cox said. "Bailey was our theater department and that's just gone now."
In February, Bailey won the Greater Denton Arts Council's Community Arts Recognition award for education. He was a University of North Texas graduate, served as the interim director for Denton Community Theater during the summer and had lead roles in several of the theater company's productions.
Cox said Bailey was close to his students.
"The last conversation I had with him was about my grades," Cox said. "I used to go to his house and watch movies sometimes. He was really like a brother to me -- a big, 40-year-old brother."
Denton theater students gathered at Cox's house Sunday to grieve, he said.
Kerri Peters, a Denton High senior, said it was helpful to have someone to talk to.
"I think us being together right now is really helping everybody out and kind of relieving some stress," Peters said.
Peters is president of Denton High School's International Thespian Society and has been involved with the theater department since her freshman year. She said she called many of her peers to tell them the news.
"Their first reaction was like mine was, it was ‘What are you talking about?' and ‘That's not possible,' and then breaking immediately into tears," Peters said. "I think we're all just st! unned. He was really inspiring all around as a teacher and as a friend."
Denton school district officials are ensuring that counselors are available for students who want or need them, Denton Superintendent Ray Braswell said.
"He did a wonderful job with the theater program," Braswell said of Bailey's effect on the school. "He was high-energy, very personable and very likeable. He had really taken the theater program to a new level."
School board member Rick Woolfolk said Bailey inspired him to learn more about the district's arts programs.
"The more I got to know Eric and the work that he did with the kids, the more I supported the program," Woolfolk said. "He took a program that had been maybe OK, and he took it to best in the state."
Most impressive was Bailey's ability to work with the students, Woolfolk said.
"The kids just worshipped him a! nd would go out of their way to achieve the level that he exp! ected ou t of them, and he had very high expectations," Woolfolk said. "He had a compassion and an ability to connect that was extremely good."
School district spokeswoman Sharon Cox said the district would set up an Eric Bailey fund through the Denton Public School Foundation. Donations can be made in Bailey's name to the Denton Public School Foundation, 1307 N. Locust St., Denton, TX 76201.
The school district has also canceled Monday night's performance of Ryan High School's play, Never the Sinner. It would have been the closing performance for the play.
AVA THOMAS BENSON can be reached at 940-566-6875. Her e-mail address is abenson@dentonrc.com
Eric Bailey, 40, acclaimed for turning Denton High into competitive program
07:23 AM CST on Monday, November 14, 2005
By Ava Thomas Benson / Staff Writer
Eric Martin Bailey, director of Denton High School's Theatre Arts Department, was found dead in his home Sunday morning. He was 40.
Eric Bailey
Bailey's teaching career in the Denton school district began at Calhoun Middle School in 1997. He moved into his role at Denton High the following year and has taken the school's one-act play to University Interscholastic League state competition four times in the past eight years. Bailey, a popular teacher, is credited with making Denton High's theater program competitive.
Russell Cox, a Denton High junior, said Bailey was a key figure at the high school.
"It's like the death of an era," Cox said. "Bailey was our theater department and that's just gone now."
In February, Bailey won the Greater Denton Arts Council's Community Arts Recognition award for education. He was a University of North Texas graduate, served as the interim director for Denton Community Theater during the summer and had lead roles in several of the theater company's productions.
Cox said Bailey was close to his students.
"The last conversation I had with him was about my grades," Cox said. "I used to go to his house and watch movies sometimes. He was really like a brother to me -- a big, 40-year-old brother."
Denton theater students gathered at Cox's house Sunday to grieve, he said.
Kerri Peters, a Denton High senior, said it was helpful to have someone to talk to.
"I think us being together right now is really helping everybody out and kind of relieving some stress," Peters said.
Peters is president of Denton High School's International Thespian Society and has been involved with the theater department since her freshman year. She said she called many of her peers to tell them the news.
"Their first reaction was like mine was, it was ‘What are you talking about?' and ‘That's not possible,' and then breaking immediately into tears," Peters said. "I think we're all just st! unned. He was really inspiring all around as a teacher and as a friend."
Denton school district officials are ensuring that counselors are available for students who want or need them, Denton Superintendent Ray Braswell said.
"He did a wonderful job with the theater program," Braswell said of Bailey's effect on the school. "He was high-energy, very personable and very likeable. He had really taken the theater program to a new level."
School board member Rick Woolfolk said Bailey inspired him to learn more about the district's arts programs.
"The more I got to know Eric and the work that he did with the kids, the more I supported the program," Woolfolk said. "He took a program that had been maybe OK, and he took it to best in the state."
Most impressive was Bailey's ability to work with the students, Woolfolk said.
"The kids just worshipped him a! nd would go out of their way to achieve the level that he exp! ected ou t of them, and he had very high expectations," Woolfolk said. "He had a compassion and an ability to connect that was extremely good."
School district spokeswoman Sharon Cox said the district would set up an Eric Bailey fund through the Denton Public School Foundation. Donations can be made in Bailey's name to the Denton Public School Foundation, 1307 N. Locust St., Denton, TX 76201.
The school district has also canceled Monday night's performance of Ryan High School's play, Never the Sinner. It would have been the closing performance for the play.
AVA THOMAS BENSON can be reached at 940-566-6875. Her e-mail address is abenson@dentonrc.com
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