Gordie Bailey had a burning-hot hatred of buckthorn.
Bailey, the former president and chairman of the board of Bailey Nurseries in Newport, was “a one-man buckthorn eradication machine,” said Pat Bailey, one of his sons. He estimates his father removed “hundreds of thousands” of the invasive plants during his lifetime.
Bailey, who worked for Bailey Nurseries for more than 70 years, died Jan. 29 at his home in Newport from complications related to multiple myeloma. He was 90.
Bailey once auctioned off his “buckthorn-removal services” at a fundraiser for the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and a man from Edina won the bid, Pat Bailey said. “My dad shows up and starts working in his back yard removing buckthorn. He was never very flashy about how he dressed or with his equipment. He shows up, and he’s dressed in his old khakis and his old beat-up jacket with duct tape, and his old beat-up boots and a ratty old hat. He’s back there doing his buckthorn removal, and the guy’s neighbor calls him up and says, ‘Jim, there’s a homeless guy rummaging around in your yard.’ He got a kick out of that. Here’s Gordie from Newport coming over to Edina.”
Gordon Bailey, who grew up working at the family nursery in Newport, had a deep knowledge of plants, and worked to steward the land and communities he loved, said Ryan McEnaney, a great-nephew and the company’s director of marketing and communications.
Bailey played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s growth, culture and long-term vision, McEnaney said. “He was a great mentor and leader for us. He taught us not just about the business, but more importantly, how to treat people. One of the most resounding things we’ve heard from employees and partners in the industry is how generous and thoughtful he was and how much he cared about people and giving back to the community. That’s the legacy that we’re excited to carry on.”
Said Pat Bailey: “He really loved people. At the nursery, the land and the buildings and the greenhouses, none of that mattered if you didn’t have really good people to make it all click. He just really had a passion for the people who worked with us.”
Hall of Famer
He also had a passion for plants. Among his claims to fame: selecting notable varieties such as Frontyard Linden, Wildfire Winterberry and Shamrock Littleleaf Linden.
“With plants, there’s a lot of variability,” Pat Bailey said. “Once in a while, you’ll get something that is just more vibrant than most of the other seedlings, or it might have more berries, or bigger berries. He just had a really good eye for new plants and plants that would do well in a landscape.”
Longtime gardening expert Bonnie Blodgett, of St. Paul, said many of the plants she grows in her Crocus Hill garden “wouldn’t be hardy here in Zone 4 if it weren’t for Gordie.” “There must be dozens,” she said. “Endless Summer hydrangea gets most of the press, but … oh, the roses!”
Bailey, who served as president of the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association and was inducted into the Hall of Fame for both MNLA and the American Nursery & Landscape Association, was a mentor to many in the nursery industry in Minnesota, said longtime friend Dale Bachman, the former CEO and chairman of the board of Bachman’s Inc.
“He always put people first, you know,” Bachman said. “Well, maybe plants came first, but people were first, too. He had two firsts. Gordie would just treat all people in a wonderful way, and we all benefited from having known him. He was always learning, always sharing.”
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Bailey Nurseries has long been a wholesale supplier for Bachman’s, he said. “All I can say is: Thank goodness, since their inception, they decided not to go into the retail business, because they would have been successful in the retail business, too,” he said. “But they stayed in their lane as a tremendous supplier to the industry and have expanded greatly. They are one of the largest nursery wholesale suppliers to the country.”
In 1978, Gordie Bailey was named president of the company, and his brother, Rodney, was named secretary/treasurer. Gordie Bailey was in charge of managing administrative functions; Rodney Bailey managed production.
“They were just the best combination you could ever have imagined for a family business,” Bachman said.
Started young
Bailey started working for the family business, which was founded in 1905 by his grandparents, John Vincent “J.V.” and Elizabeth Bailey, when he was a young boy. Among his early jobs: weeding, propagating, picking up rocks and picking apples, Pat Bailey said.
“We had a retail store in an old shed for a while back then, so he would have worked selling apples and plants at certain times of the year,” he said. “Whatever they needed you to do on the farm, you did.”
Bailey graduated from Park High School in St. Paul Park, attended Saint John’s University in Collegeville, and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in business, he said.
In the late 1950s, he met Josephine “Jo” Brunner, a nurse from Gibbon, Minn., on a double date. “They weren’t paired up, but whoever they were each with failed,” Pat Bailey said. “They started dating after that.”
The couple married in 1960 at St. Willibrord Catholic Church in Gibbon. They had seven children.
Gordie Bailey served as a trustee for the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Foundation, Saint John’s University and Carpenter Nature Center, among other organizations.
Philanthropist, outdoorsman
In addition to his leadership roles, Bailey was known for his philanthropic efforts and advocacy for horticultural research and education. He spearheaded the “Tour de Hort,” cycling 2,100 miles across the United States in three segments to raise $1.25 million for the Horticultural Research Institute.
When he was 79, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to help fund the construction of a girls’ school in Nairobi, Kenya.
“He was a real outdoorsman,” Pat Bailey said. “He was much more at home being outside and in nature amongst plants, going for a hike or camping up in the Boundary Waters. He once organized a bike trip from Newport up to Ely. It took five days. He rode a century (100 miles) on his 80th birthday. He was much more of a doer than a talker. ”
Bailey, an avid hunter, fisherman and cyclist, loved spending time with his family at their cabin on Snowbank Lake near Ely and at their hobby farm in Wasioja, Minn., near Dodge Center. He was ice fishing into his late 80s, and only stopped biking a year and a half ago, Pat Bailey said.
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“He was big on prairie restoration, so he did a lot of prairie restoration on the farm,” he said. “He loved planting trees. He was very happy just being outside, being able to plant trees and enhance the habitat for animals on his farm.”
Bailey is survived by his wife, Jo; five sons, John, Pat, Mark, Mike and Joe; two daughters, Mary Hope and Melissa Cullen; 16 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian burial will be at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 14, with visitation one hour prior, at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Paul Park, where Bailey was a lifelong member.
Kok Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
