When we attended Murray State in Kentucky my wife Pat and I and Dave Dunn sang for awhile in a 3 guy, 2 girl configuration. One of the other guys in the group was Bailey Carlisle. We did Skyliner tunes as well as some other popular songs of the day and I remember us as sounding pretty darn good. This was the only time that my wife Pat and I sang together.

When we returned from Kentucky to Indianapolis, Bailey came along. He was a carefree fun-loving guy. He was fascinated by the Indianapolis 500 mile race. We got a car in line on 16th street for the 1963 race, a traditional way of getting a good spot in the infield. But, as so often happens, we were so hungover on race morning that we pulled out of line and went home. All except Bailey. He wouldn’t hear of it. He got out, got in the trunk and pulled out the last full case of beer and decided he’d walk the mile and half to the track and figure out how to get home afterward. I want to point out that these were long-neck glass bottles and the case was one of those old-fashioned heavy cardboard reusable ones. It was HEAVY.

Sometime just before dusk of race day after sleeping off the heroic beer drinking of the previous night and after watching the race on television, I was sitting on the porch to cool off from the day’s heat when I see a figure trudging up the middle of our street, carrying something. It was Bailey and he had lugged that case as he’d emptied the bottles inside with him all day. He was red as a beet but only on on the front. He was so tired after he finally got into the race and had drunk so much beer that he had fallen asleep and slept through the entire thing. But still he dragged that case home full of empties so that he could cash them in.

Bailey, Dave, Chuck Tunnah and I sang together for awhile during 1963. One day we got a phone call from a guy who said he was a record producer in New York City and if we came to the city he’d be interested in recording us. He’d heard an audition tape we’d sent to California for Jimmy O’Neil’s Shindig TV show. So with my wife’s blessing, I joined Dave and Bailey in taking the train to New York City with high hopes. We arrived to find that our potential record producer was some 16 year old kid running on pure hutzpah. It was very disappointing. On the plus side we got a tour of Bell Sound studios where some of the most classic music of the 40′s and 50′s was recorded. The walls featured groups like the Platters on posters as we walked through the corridors. Much later Stark Naked and the Car Thieves would record for Bell Records (Amy/Mala/Bell), and though I haven’t researched this, I am almost certain this was the record label’s original studio before it was sold.

Dave and I went to a to a 50′s rock revival at the Brooklyn Fox theater. I remember we got separated on the subway yet found  each other somehow at the theater just in time to get good seats through some out-of-towner magic. It was a great show with groups like Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Supremes, the Chantels and lots more. We had very little money so we were staying at the YMCA in downtown Manhattan in rooms like closets. Bailey hadn’t told us that he came with us virtually penniless so we had to try and keep him alive as well as ourselves. After 3 days, Dave and I had to phone home for bus fare. But not Bailey, even though he didn’t have a nickel to his name he was determined to stay and find his fortune on the Great White Way. He was always an optimist. I thought there was a good chance we’d never see him again. He was such an innocent soul with an outrageous belief that he could walk into any lion’s den and walk away unscathed. After another week or maybe more he somehow got himself back to Indy. He never explained how. That was Bailey in a nutshell.

Recently I stumbled across an obituary for Bailey posted online at his high school. Since Dave and I remember him and he was in a couple of renditions of our singing group and one of the more original and colorful characters I have ever known I wanted to remember him here on our site.

Bailey died November 4, 1998 where he was living in Earlington, KY.

He was survived by his mother, Francis, a daughter Irish, a son Evan and brother Bill. He was preceded in death by his father Elmo.

He was a member of the Kentucky All State Chorus, a member of the Campus Lights at Murray State University and was a Methodist. He was a retired Theater Manager.

Larry Dunlap

(This post was originally posted on 10/24/11 and updated on 1/3/12)