My name is Joel H Bailey, born to H.A. and Margie Bailey of Rockingham on April 21, 1948. Me, my wife and daughter now reside in Cary, NC.
My family included me and three brothers, Gary, Randy, and Keith. No daughters in the family, to my mothers' regrets I am sure.
I spent my 19 years at home on Old Ellerbe Road below Five Points, close to the old Rockingham Roofing Co and Beverly Hills Baptist Church.
My oldest brother, Gary, passed away on May 1, 2000. Randy is the next oldest and he still lives in Rockingham with his family. Keith is the youngest of the four and he lives in Rockingham also.
My mother passed away on April 10, 2012 after a heart attack and stroke within 3 days of each other. My dad had three heart attacks and could not make it through the third one. He died on August 25, 1977. I miss them dearly and one day I will see my parents and brother Gary in heaven.
I married Sandra Watson on November 22, 1967 and we have three children. She passed away April 3, 2012 after a marriage of 45 years - I look forward to reuniting with my wife one day in Heaven. Sandi is the oldest and she lives closeby in Raleigh. Shannon is next and he and his family, which include, Wendi, his wife, and Connor, his oldest child, Meranda, Dylan, Austin and his newest addition, Logan, live in Orange Park, Fl. I also have a 21 year old daughter, Crystal, that lives with me.
I graduated from Rockingham High School in 1966 and attended Richmond Technical Institute and graduated with an AAS Degree in Business Administration. While I attended RTI, it was an honor to become the first Student Body President there.
Heart problems tend to run in my family. My dad had three heart attacks as mentioned above and I have had two. My first one was March 26, 1989 and the second one on July 26, 1998. My brother Randy has had heart problems also and had to have a quadruple bypass a few years back and brother Keith had to have 2 stints put into his arteries this year. A heart condition helped contribute to the death of my brother, Gary.
In 1988, the railroad was consolidating most of the work force to Jacksonville, Fla. So, that year my family and I packed up and made the move to Jacksonville. I worked different jobs there until 1996. That's when my wifes' job transferred, so we packed up once again and moved to Clearwater, where she worked and I worked in Tampa.
After my second heart attack in 1998, I assumed I would be able to go back to work - like the first heart attack. But it was not to be. I filed for disability and when I received it, we decided if we were coming back to Carolina, now would be the time.
When we lived in Clearwater, I started messing with the computer and compiling information about my family and growing up in Rockingham. I put a lot of it together there but was in no hurry to start a website. Then, when we moved back to Cary, I decided it was time to put it all together and create a site that had its base in family and memories of growing up that we all have.
In September 2009, my website developed problems and I was not able to edit it at all. I had it for about 10 years...but now am having to develop another one to take it's place. It is called Rockingham Memories. I will not be able to transfer all of the previous website into the new one but hopefully a lot of the entries will be saved. Plus the old website will stay like it is...I don't plan to delete it because there is so much info in it.
So hopefully in the future my children, grandchildren and others can look back on these 2 websites and get a feel of what it was like in the good ole days!
My family included me and three brothers, Gary, Randy, and Keith. No daughters in the family, to my mothers' regrets I am sure.
I spent my 19 years at home on Old Ellerbe Road below Five Points, close to the old Rockingham Roofing Co and Beverly Hills Baptist Church.
My oldest brother, Gary, passed away on May 1, 2000. Randy is the next oldest and he still lives in Rockingham with his family. Keith is the youngest of the four and he lives in Rockingham also.
My mother passed away on April 10, 2012 after a heart attack and stroke within 3 days of each other. My dad had three heart attacks and could not make it through the third one. He died on August 25, 1977. I miss them dearly and one day I will see my parents and brother Gary in heaven.
I married Sandra Watson on November 22, 1967 and we have three children. She passed away April 3, 2012 after a marriage of 45 years - I look forward to reuniting with my wife one day in Heaven. Sandi is the oldest and she lives closeby in Raleigh. Shannon is next and he and his family, which include, Wendi, his wife, and Connor, his oldest child, Meranda, Dylan, Austin and his newest addition, Logan, live in Orange Park, Fl. I also have a 21 year old daughter, Crystal, that lives with me.
I graduated from Rockingham High School in 1966 and attended Richmond Technical Institute and graduated with an AAS Degree in Business Administration. While I attended RTI, it was an honor to become the first Student Body President there.
Heart problems tend to run in my family. My dad had three heart attacks as mentioned above and I have had two. My first one was March 26, 1989 and the second one on July 26, 1998. My brother Randy has had heart problems also and had to have a quadruple bypass a few years back and brother Keith had to have 2 stints put into his arteries this year. A heart condition helped contribute to the death of my brother, Gary.
In 1988, the railroad was consolidating most of the work force to Jacksonville, Fla. So, that year my family and I packed up and made the move to Jacksonville. I worked different jobs there until 1996. That's when my wifes' job transferred, so we packed up once again and moved to Clearwater, where she worked and I worked in Tampa.
After my second heart attack in 1998, I assumed I would be able to go back to work - like the first heart attack. But it was not to be. I filed for disability and when I received it, we decided if we were coming back to Carolina, now would be the time.
When we lived in Clearwater, I started messing with the computer and compiling information about my family and growing up in Rockingham. I put a lot of it together there but was in no hurry to start a website. Then, when we moved back to Cary, I decided it was time to put it all together and create a site that had its base in family and memories of growing up that we all have.
In September 2009, my website developed problems and I was not able to edit it at all. I had it for about 10 years...but now am having to develop another one to take it's place. It is called Rockingham Memories. I will not be able to transfer all of the previous website into the new one but hopefully a lot of the entries will be saved. Plus the old website will stay like it is...I don't plan to delete it because there is so much info in it.
So hopefully in the future my children, grandchildren and others can look back on these 2 websites and get a feel of what it was like in the good ole days!