This is compilation of articles written by Jennie Jones Giles for the Hendersonville Times-News.

As a child, Louise Howe Bailey traveled the unpaved and rough back roads into the coves, hollows and valleys, meeting the Southern Appalachian Mountain people of Henderson County.
Her father, Dr. William Howe, was one of a handful of country doctors in the 1920s. Louise often traveled with him as he went to cabins and weather-board houses to treat the sick and injured.
Later, as the wife of Dr. Joseph Bailey, Louise collected more memories of the county and its people.
“I like to bring to life the everyday people who furnish our food and cut the timber for our homes,” she said one day while sitting in her favorite chair.
Bailey described the native mountain people as “real people” who are independent and have dignity and pride.
“For common sense, you can’t beat the people in these mountains,” she said. “They’ve survived just with their own initiative. They treated illnesses with home remedies and would go to the doctor as a last resort.”
She spoke of her husband, Dr. Joseph Bailey, who, from 1947 almost to his death in 1986, also cared for the local residents when they became sick or needed a doctor.
“He delivered about 3,000 babies,” she said.
Bailey’s 42 years of columns in the Times-News brought to life a proud mountain people with a distinct culture. The names and dates did not matter. It was the way of life, the personality, and the traits of the people that she so beautifully described in her writings.
Her memories of the people and the land spanned more than 90 years, from the 1920s into the 21st century. Her columns preserve those memories of the people and the natural beauty that surrounded them.
Born July 6, 1915, in Hendersonville, Bailey was the daughter of the late Dr. William Bell Howe, a well-known Henderson County physician. The family moved to Flat Rock when she was 12. She was a descendant of Judge Mitchell King of Charleston, S.C., who lived in the summer months at his Argyle estate in Flat Rock.
She attended the Fassifern School for Girls in Hendersonville and Winthrop College in Rock Hill, S.C., where she earned a degree in biology. She later graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in library science.
Bailey returned to South Carolina from New York as a library science training school supervisor at Winthrop College. She also worked as an English teacher in Edgefield, S.C.
In addition to teaching, Bailey served as a columnist for the Times-News, writing “Along the Ridges” for 42 years, and authored nine books. Henderson County and its mountain people were Bailey’s favorite subjects. Her books include “Remembering Henderson County,” “Draw Up A Chair,” “Go Home Wi’ Me” and others.
Bailey’s writings are a treasure trove of valuable insights into the culture of the Appalachian people and her work is a public service that ensures the preservation of that culture for generations.
She brought to life the people’s dialect, their way of life and their customs. She and Frank FitzSimons were two of the greatest storytellers and preservers of Henderson County heritage.
Bailey also wrote stories about nature. She had stories about birds, flowers, trees, rivers and streams.
She presented 479 talks on local culture and nature to groups of students and to civic clubs and church groups.

Honors and awards

The “Louise Bailey Archives” in the library at Blue Ridge Community College contains awards and bound volumes of her newspaper columns. She was also a speaker at the Carl Sandburg Symposium at Western Carolina University in 1993.
Her awards included the North Carolina Society of Historians Religious Book Award in 1995 for her book on St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church, and the Western North Carolina Historian of the Year in 1997.
She was a former board member and trustee of the Henderson County Public Library, the BRCC Education Foundation and Historic Flat Rock. She also served on the Board of Visitors at the Kanuga Conference Center. Bailey was a member of the National League of American Penwomen and an honorary member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. She was a member of St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church.
During a Sept. 25 ceremony before the premiere of a biographical play — “Reflections: From the Mirror of Her Mind” — written by local playwright Tom Orr in Bailey’s honor, N.C. Rep. Carolyn Justus presented her with The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the governor of North Carolina.
Sept. 25 was declared “Louise Howe Bailey Day” in Henderson County by the Board of Commissioners. The towns of Saluda and all of Henderson County’s local municipalities including Flat Rock, Fletcher, Mills River and Laurel Park also proclaimed the special day in her honor.