Narrative Summary
Interview with Delores Bailiff by Shelby Walpole
Born in the 1930s and raised in the midst of the Great Depression, family and faith were
the cornerstones in Delores Bailiff’s life. Now, Delores is instilling that faith in others.
Delores’s family was the biggest influence on her spiritual life, her Grandmother Coley in
particular. She was the one who taught Delores that if she committed her life to the Lord, then he
would take care of her. Another influence on her spiritual life was Lloyd Douglas’s book
Magnificent Obsession. This book guided her study of God’s Word, which is a big part of her
daily life.
Delores has been involved in religion from a young age. She went from attending Sunday
school and Bible school to teaching them. Delores feels God has called her to teach, so she
became a teacher and has taught in service to him ever since she first felt that calling. She has
taught every age group throughout her life. She worked in the youth department for about thirty
years, and has been involved in many missionary organizations within her church, including
Training Union, Girls in Action, Young Women’s Alliance, and Sunbeams. She now teaches
older adults at a residential center and leads a Bible study at a nursing home.
When comparing her faith to that of her parents, she feels there are both similarities and
differences. They are similar in realizing the importance of God’s Word and worshipping and
serving Him, but Delores feels she is more involved in activities, service, and teaching than her
parents were. She wonders whether that may be due to the advantages of her having a college
education. She also feels her faith is deeper because she has had twenty-eight more years of life
than her father did, and she feels her faith has deepened a lot in those years.
Being a woman has made Delores’s spiritual life easier, mainly because it is easier for
women to be compassionate and kind. During our interview, she said, “Men can do that, but in
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my day and age, they were the ones who had to go off and fight the wars.” Because of this,
women carried on most of the work in the church for many years. The only times in Delores’s
life that she was not able to serve in her church were during her three maternity leaves and while
her husband was battling cancer. When he was fighting cancer, Delores continued teaching her
Bible study classes, but was not able to leave him alone long enough to attend both the classes
and worship services. Instead, she went home to be with him. Fortunately, the worship services
from her church were broadcast on television, so they were still able to participate in that way.
Delores feels that the most significant thing about her religious life is “the ability to see
God in the world around us and his creation. The ability to feel his presence with me at all
times.” In her daily life, Delores tries to treat people as Jesus would. She talks to God first thing
in the morning and before bed at night, not just on Sunday. She feels there is always room for
improvement in our relationship with him.
Delores’s advice to the young is to study God’s Word. She says that it is there for us, the
guidelines to live by, and if we pay attention and try to stay tuned in to him, he will guide us.
Another piece of advice she has to offer is to do “what is right between you and God.” She also
encourages the study of religions saying that “we need to have a better understanding of other
people’s beliefs.” In the United States, everyone can worship as they please and not every
country allows this. She reminds us that “there are people being persecuted over their religious
beliefs, and that should never happen.”
As mentioned earlier, family is a very important part of Delores’s life. Her parents had a
son thirteen months before she was born, but he passed away soon after birth. Delores knows that
she will meet him in heaven when she gets there. After Delores was born, her parents were not
able to have any more children. Because of this she says, “I firmly believe that God has a reason
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for me being here.” She grew up poor, but those were during the Depression years, and she did
not know they were poor. She never lacked for companionship, even in spite of being an only
child. There were always cousins and friends around with whom she could play. Delores married
at the age of twenty-two, and she and her husband had three children. They were married fortytwo years before he eventually lost his struggle of cancer. Delores now has seven grandchildren
and three great-grandchildren who have blessed her even more. She shares that her in-laws are
wonderful. She loves the people her children and grandchildren have married, exclaiming, “I’ve
just been doubly blessed.”
Missouri State University
Spring 2009
Religious Lives of Ozarks Women