Mary Emma Brown was born on May 12, 1905. In her lifetime she was able to see Dublin’s “past and present” as it evolved from a quiet farming community into a growing suburb where families and businesses built the city.
She grew up doing chores that helped take care of hogs and the growing of crops on her family farm. It was located at the corner of Riverside Drive and Rt. 161, presently it is the location of Tim Horton’s. The farm is now a memory, but the location and sense of the Dublin community is strong. City planners are now looking to the future and incorporating the land the farm once covered into a larger plan to serve the current community.
Mary Emma’s Dublin High School class of 1923 graduated nine girls and one boy. She moved to Denison, Ohio, to teach and would come home to see her family in Dublin about every five months. At that time, teachers were not allowed to be married, so she kept her wonderful news quiet, even though she had become Mary Emma Bailey!
Mary Emma Bailey later returned to Dublin and held different jobs in the Washington Local Schools, the name Dublin City Schools was once called. She enjoyed teaching high school business classes and was known for her love of Dublin students and the dedication she had for Dublin schools. She is remembered as one of the “grand ladies of Dublin.” Mary Emma Bailey died at the age of 99, August 24, 2004.