by Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 29/97) - One of Yellowknife's pioneer workers with the homeless died in Fort Smith.

Rev. Gordon Bailey died Dec. 30, 1996, just a month-and-a-half after his wife Ruth passed away. He was 89.

Pastor Eva Nichol of the Fort Smith Pentecostal Church conducted the service Jan. 2, 1997. Interment was in the Anglican Church cemetery.

Although he came to Canada as a child, Bailey was born in Bournemouth, England, May 6, 1907.

He attended the Pentecostal Bible College in Winnipeg and met his wife at a church camp. Ten years later they were engaged and married in 1941.

Long-time neighbour Linda Kallos said they were truly in love.

"You always thought of them together," she said. "They actually practised the word of God instead of just talking about it."

The next 16 years were spent ministering in Canada's prairies.

In 1958 they moved to Fort Resolution, where they carried out mission work for five years before moving to Yellowknife.

They started the Pentecostal Mission church in Old Town and soon were opening their home to the homeless.

Bailey told reporters at their 50th wedding anniversary they would rather have people sleeping on their floor on Latham Island than freezing in the streets.

Kallos said at times there were 18 people sleeping on the Bailey's living room floor.

"They never turned anyone away," she said. "They were saints."

The Baileys received many awards, including the 1978 Citizen of the Year from the city of Yellowknife.

In 1983 they received both the Canadian Volunteer Award and the Commissioners Award.

In 1989 they received the Citation for Citizenship award in Ottawa.

The Baileys retired to Fort Smith in 1991 because the weather was better for Ruth's asthma.

They lived in their home for a year before ill health forced them to move into the Fort Smith Special Care Home.

Bailey is survived by his son Ernie of Rae-Edzo and daughter Agnes.