Death of Marge Bailey

Many of those who attended Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, will remember Marge Bailey, who was employed by the College for about 20 years. Her married name was Alice Carrick. She completed her earthly sojourn on April 1, just short of age 95. She died as the result of a cerebral stroke that had occurred on March 10.

Born in Stockton, California, in 1920, Marge grew up on remote ranches in northeast California near Fort Bidwell and Alturus. In the mid- to late 1940s The World Tomorrow radio program caught her interest and in the fall of 1953 she traveled to east Texas for a church festival and was baptized there. A few years later Marge was hired to work in the Mayfair kitchen at Ambassador College, along with Annie Mann and Myrtle Horn. Later, she was asked to serve as operator of the campus laundry, where she also sewed laundry bags for the students to use when they brought their clothes in for cleaning. Some students used these sturdy, hand-sewn bags for many years following graduation.

After leaving the college in the mid-1970s, Marjorie returned to northern California. While living in Orland and Corning, she served the members of the Chico congregation of WCG/GCI in a variety of ways over several decades. During this time she decided to begin writing a series of children’s mystery books with a ranch setting similar to that of her childhood. She used the pen name Alys Henderson (a form of her first name, Alice, and her maiden name). Two books were published and a third was unfinished at the time of her death.

Marge is survived by her husband of nearly 22 years, Clifford Carrick. Although Marge had no children of her own, she considered the hundreds of young men and women of Ambassador College her “kids.”