A fellow teacher and a student (my daughter and granddaughter) both told me I should interview Mrs. Jennifer Bailey, so I was glad to do so. We had a great time, visiting and sharing our lives. But that’s why I love this job.
Jennifer Bailey was born December 11, 1972, to Larry and Sylvia Griffin Loper. They first lived in Forest, as her dad worked at MS Power there before he transferred to Newton. Having suffered with ulcerative colitis all her life, her mother passed away in 1998. She had taught at Newton County Academy about 27 years. Her father died in 2018 of complications following heart surgery.
Jennifer has a brother, Larry Milton “Bubba” Loper, II, who works for Lockheed Martin. He and his son Garrett Loper live in Newton. Her two sisters are Mrs. Heather Loper Bounds, who teaches third grade at Sebastopol, and Laurie Loper McGehee, who works at Psychology Associates. Heather is married to Joe Bounds, and they have two sons, Gunnar and Zander. Laurie has three girls, Danielle, Jesse, and Cierra McGehee.
Understandably, Jennifer attended NCA where her mother taught, played all sports and was Homecoming Queen. She graduated in 1990 as Miss NCA and Valedictorian of her senior class. Going on to East Central Junior College, she graduated in 1992 before beginning work at Sunburst Bank, which then became Union Planters.
In 1992, through matchmaking friends, Jennifer met her husband Al Bailey, son of Alfred and Freda McKee Bailey. He was a member of the first graduating class of Newton County High School in 1991. After her marriage on September 30, 1995, she began working toward her teaching degree at Mississippi State Meridian, attending at night. Al worked about thirteen years at La-Z-Boy, but he has been working offshore for about fifteen years now for Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC, being home every other week.
Jennifer told me Al is a loyal, hard-working man and a faithful Christian who has sacrificed much for their family, having missed many occasions. In a sense, he has missed almost half of his own children’s lives, being gone half the year. She also commented as to his being a good neighbor, who will check on people, making sure everyone around him is O.K.
In August 1997, Jennifer began teaching third grade at Lake Elementary, She didn’t realize it, but her first year at Lake would be her mother’s last year to teach at NCA. Jennifer taught one more year at Lake, which was a gift from God, as her mother died in September. Having been there the year before, everyone knew her and gave her great support. The next year she came to Newton County Elementary to teach first grade for two years. Jennifer then taught kindergarten for ten years, before moving to teach fifth grade ten more years. She is now teaching seventh grade English at NCMS for her third year.
She shared, “I think the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was raise my children without my mother, but thankfully I was blessed with a wonderful mother-in-law, and my mother’s sister, Judy “JuJu” Griffin, stepped in to become like a grandmother. Also, she recalled, “Gavin probably would not have survived his first year of life, had ‘Mama Beth,’” her assistant Beth Chaney at NCES, “not been there to guide me.”
The Baileys’ son Gavin Pace Bailey, born July 12, 2000, played baseball and ran cross country before graduating from NCHS as a highest honor graduate in 2018. He also played baseball at ECCC and was named a Hall of Fame member. Now a civil engineer major at Mississippi State, he is doing a summer internship with Mississippi Power as his “Papa,” Mr. Larry Loper, did.
Griffin Lee Bailey, born June 14, 2004, played baseball, soccer, and cross country, was voted Mr. NCHS, and was also a highest honor graduate at NCHS. In the pre-physical therapy program, he will go to Jones College to play soccer on scholarship this year.
Ms. Jennifer, as so many know her, told me, “I joined the church when I was seven or eight years old, after a Bible school I attended at my Mamaw’s church, Mt. Vernon Baptist, because my cousin did it and I didn’t want to go to hell.” Having been baptized at her family church, Pine Bluff Baptist, she said she was always bothered and never had a complete peace. She told me that, as a teenager, she remembered every night being worried. Continuing, she confided, “I called out to God one night, and I felt like He took my heart and wrapped His hands around it. I knew then I was saved.” Later, at Oakland Baptist Church, having still been concerned that she had done things “out of order,” she asked to be rebaptized and said, “I was now at peace, and my relationship with God has only gotten stronger. I wanted to be a model for my children, never wanting them to get saved out of fear but because they knew what Jesus did for us.”
The family had moved to attend Clarke-Venable Baptist Church when Gavin was six. When Griffin was eight, after a “travel ball” game on a Sunday afternoon, they attended church at Brandon Baptist Church, though being “hot and sweaty,” and Griffin expressed that he didn’t want to go. Leaving the church after the service, Griffin told his mother, “Mama, I think God was talking to me in there.” They prayed all week, then he “walked the aisle” the next Sunday when his dad was home. Halfway down the aisle, he hesitated, and “Daddy Kenneth” Chaney walked up to help him come the rest of the way.
Gavin’s experience was also quite interesting, as he was saved at a “FUGE” camp at about fifteen or sixteen years old. He called home to say he had made a decision about salvation after hearing the story of Hosea and his wife Gomer. Gavin said he realized the story was saying God’s love kept reaching out to us, to him, no matter that we were sinners, just as Hosea kept loving Gomer, though she kept being unfaithful to him. Upon returning home, he was baptized at church.
Jennifer told me, “Over the years that I’ve taught, I’ve poured so much into my kids, trying to share my love for Christ and how to live for Him.” I believe she meant her own children as well as those in her classes. At CVBC, she has taught preschool choir, kindergarten Sunday School, women’s Bible studies, and served with the high school ministry for several years. She is now beginning to work with John Mark Vincent with Middle School Ministry. Both Shaun Selman and the present high school minister Thomas Van Landingham played major roles in Gavin and Griffin’s spiritual growth during the years they were in high school.
Jennifer Bailey will continue to stay busy, influencing other children for the Lord, seeing God make more “big” moments out of “little,” even as both her own boys are no longer at home.
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
