Miriam Bailey Gardner
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Miriam Bailey Gardner, 68, of Cary, NC, and Monticello, KY, died Friday, March 6, 2020, at her home in Cary. She was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in 2007. Her husband, William "Bill" Gardner was her caregiver during her 13-year illness.
A memorial service will be held Thursday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at her home church, Unity Presbyterian in the Woodleaf, NC, community (885 Woodleaf-Barber Rd., Cleveland, NC). The Rev. Bart Friddle of St. Paul United Methodist Church, Greensboro, and the Rev. Kevin Conley, interim pastor of Unity, will officiate. The family will receive friends in the church fellowship hall after the service. A private burial service will be scheduled later at a family cemetery in Wayne County, KY.
Miriam was born Feb. 6, 1952, in Rowan County, the daughter of the late Marguerite Bain Bailey and William Douglas Bailey. She was a 1970 graduate of West Rowan High School and followed the path of her grandfather, Hugh Bailey, to N.C. State University, where he graduated in 1914 (then Agricultural and Mechanical Arts College of NC). Miriam received her bachelor's degree in conservation from the College of Natural Resources at N.C. State in 1974 and earned an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1989.
Employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service for 33 years, Miriam was the first woman district conservationist in North Carolina, and one of the first five in the nation. She was considered a trailblazer in her work, having served in Mecklenburg County, Lee County, and Wake County in North Carolina and Benton County in Oregon. She concluded her career in the North Carolina NRCS office.
A pilot from the age of 17 with an interest in aerospace engineering, Miriam attempted to join the Air Force flight program while at N.C. State but found it was open only to men.
Miriam was a talented musician, beginning her training at the age of two with her mother, a music teacher. She played the piano, organ, cornet and French horn. She was the carillonneur at N.C. State for four years, giving evening concerts daily at the Belltower's carillon. She also participated in the University Choir and the marching band and was accompanist for the university's Thompson Theatre productions. The Miriam Bailey Gardner Music Scholarship Endowment, established in her honor, provides merit-based scholarships to N.C. State music students.
In the communities where she lived, she was always involved in music, participating in church programs and as musical director in community theater productions and often acting in theater as well. While in Raleigh, she was keyboardist and singer with the band Swade and Satin. She was a member of White Plains United Methodist Church, Cary, NC.
She is preceded in death by her parents, a sister, Sandra Bailey Mowery, and a brother, Fred Bain Bailey, who all lived in Woodleaf.
She is survived by her husband, William "Bill" Gardner of Cary and Monticello, whom she married Aug. 9, 1987; a son, Dylan Vance Gardner of Clayton, NC; a step-son, Chad Gardner of Raleigh, NC; a step-daughter, Lora Gardner (Mike) Rowe of Apex, NC; two step-grandchildren, Grayson and Emma Rowe of Apex; a brother, Robert W. Bailey of Woodleaf; and a sister, Mary Bailey (Larry) Longmuir of Oviedo, FL.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Miriam Bailey Gardner Music Scholarship, N.C. State University, Arts Development, Talley Student Union, Campus Box 7306, Raleigh, NC, 27695 or visit
https://music.arts.ncsu.edu/miriam-bailey-gardner-music-scholarship/ or to the Alzheimer's Association,
225 N. Michigan Ave., Fl. 17, Chicago, IL 60601, or visit alz.org.