Juanita Ilene Bailey

Juanita Ilene Vincent was born to Frank and Harriet Vincent on March 23, 1930. She was the 6th of their 7 children. Adaline, Wilma, Margie, Flora, their spouses, Paul, Hap, Frank and Doris’s husband, Lucky, all preceded her in death. She is survived by her sister, Doris, and Brother Frank, Jr. Juanita had wonderful memories of her childhood. They were very poor but she said she never realized it at the time because of the hard work and love of her parents to make their childhood a joyful time. They worked to earn money as they could with her mother cleaning houses and her dad working for the WPA (Works Projects Administration) at one time to help build Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

At the age of 16 Juanita began roller skating with her sister, Flora.

She took lessons and then started competing as a pair with Dean Faust. Together their best finish was fourth in regional competition, just missing a chance to compete at Nationals.

Juanita attended West High school until the 10th grade. When her older sister, Flora, graduated, she decided to quit school and get a job to earn some money. Education for women wasn’t seen as important then as it is today, and only her typing and stenographic teachers tried to talk her out of quitting. She did eventually earn a GED, the equivalency of a high school diploma. Her first job was for JJ Newberry’s department store as a floor girl making sure all the registers were stocked so the employees could make change. As part of her job she traveled to Texas to help them open a new store; one of her jobs there was to ride the new-fangled escalators. They were so new a lot of older customers were afraid to ride them, so she had to ride the escalators to show them they were safe to ride. She stayed at this job until her marriage to William Bailey on August 6th 1950, and the birth of their first son, William Jr., who was better known as Bill, on August 31st of 1951.

After Bill was born she took some time off before getting a job at Montgomery Ward filling catalog orders. She was at this job literally until the birth of their second son, Larry. Apparently the doctor miscalculated her due date by two months; one of her supervisors didn’t believe that and thought she should be sent home. She kept insisting she had two more months and kept working, until April 28th 1953. That day she went home after working a full a day and went into labor. They attempted to stop the contractions but were unsuccessful and Larry was born. At his birth it was obvious to them that he was not early but full term and healthy. Duane and Anita were born February 23, 1955, and January 22, 1957, respectively, in less-sensational fashion. It was a joy to both mother and father when Anita was born to finally deliver a girl after three boys.

After all the kids were in school Juanita started working at her sister’s, Flora’s, greenhouse, staying there until September of 1967, when she started working for Denver Public Schools as a part-time lunchroom assistant. She later became a lunchroom manager before retiring in 1993. After retiring she continued to work part-time until 2002, when she quit working entirely.

When the Colorado Rockies came to town a new passion was born. Juanita began going to games with Duane’s family, sitting in the Rockpile and learning to love baseball. When the Rockies moved to Coors Field, her sisters Margie and Flora joined her in the stands (in better seats). They began calling each other the night before games making sure to coordinate everything from their Rockies shirts, jewelry, coats and even matching Rockies fanny packs. As you can imagine the three of them were quite popular and were coined “the Sisters” by the stadium staff. The three of them were even interviewed in local television broadcasts on multiple occasions.

She had three grand-kids: Amy Bailey, Patrick and Andrew Rosenberger, and one great grandchild, Jarek Rosenberger. When asked what she was most proud of she immediately said her children and grandchildren.

The tragic death of her oldest son Bill in a truck crash on April 25th 2019, was hard on her and affected her the rest of her life.

In addition to her brother and sister, she is survived by her children and their spouses, Bill’s wife Gage Evans, Larry Bailey and wife Kara Van Horn, Duane and wife Dana Bailey, Anita Bailey and partner Trevor Gamache, grandchildren Amy, Andrew, Patrick Rosenberger, his wife Anne and their son Jarek.

Juanita was a long-time member of the First Christian Church of Englewood, the same church where she was married. She was in the choir, performing in many church programs.

Juanita entered heaven on April 28th 2023, peacefully in her sleep, shortly after returning to her assisted living residence, earlier she had spent a wonderful evening watching home movies with her family at Duane’s home.