Good Sorts - Lilian Bailey

Lilian Bailey lives by her father’s advice, “If you do a job, make sure you do it well.”

Born in Timaru in 1936 and the eldest of 6 children, Lilian’s family moved to Blenheim while she was young but returned to South Canterbury during WWII, to help on her grandfather’s farm in Otaio while her father was serving overseas. Lilian attended Otaio School and recalls the entire school biking to the dentist in St Andrews. “It was another world, I can tell you!”

Art has always been a passion for Lilian and over the years she has experimented with oils, acrylics and watercolours. Her art teacher at Timaru Technical College took an interest in her work and sometimes displayed it on the classroom wall.

Lilian began volunteering at age 15, first at the Pleasant Point Children’s Health Camp and then as a founding member of the Timaru Ladies Pipe Band. Lilian played the drums and bagpipes and soon took on the role of secretary. She participated in many fundraising events and especially memorable was a penny raffle, where the band played down the length of Stafford Street with committee members dragging a tartan rug along behind, into which members of the public tossed their coins.

Lilian left the band when she moved to Waimate for married life with husband Douglas Bailey in 1959. She had achieved senior qualifications in shorthand typing through night school and was able to find work in the office of accountant John Broughton, where she remained until motherhood, about 18 months later. Once her eldest was in kindergarten, Lilian went picking strawberries and peas at a local farm over summer so her family could buy a car.

Lilian’s mother-in-law, Nell, was instrumental in her joining both the Waimate Methodist Women’s Fellowship, where she subsequently became secretary, and the Waimate Horticultural Society. Lilian recalls setting up displays at horticultural shows in Timaru, Oamaru and Christchurch. Some members of the society were also interested in establishing a floral art group, splitting off from the Waimate Horticultural Society and affiliating with the newly formed Floral Art Society of New Zealand (FASNZ).

Over the years, Lilian served as Waimate Floral Art Group secretary, South Canterbury area secretary, SC area representative, SC area president, and SC area councillor. She was elected to attend the national body meetings, held quarterly in Wellington, which she did for four years.

During her two years as national secretary of FASNZ, NZ hosted the World Association of Floral Artists’ World Flower Show and Lilian helped set up the venue in Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre.

A highlight of Lilian’s volunteering years was studying for exams in both European and Japanese (Ikebana) floral art, which enabled her to teach classes and judge shows. “You couldn’t do it quick, because there was a lot involved,” Lilian recalls. She also travelled to China and Japan for international Ikebana conferences.

Lilian’s many years of study and experience in the art have been donated back into the community, through decorating venues and bringing pleasure to other people.

None of the FASNZ roles she undertook were paid positions. “Most of what you did, I called ‘a love job,’” explains Lilian. “You did it because you wanted to.” As soon as she retired from FASNZ, the secretary and treasurer roles became funded.

During these busy years, Lilian also maintained a large home garden and entered seasonal flower shows during the 1960s. She supported her three sons in their sporting activities and assisted the fundraising efforts of the Waimate Silver Band, where her late husband Douglas was drum major. “We were busy but we weren’t sitting around watching telly and stuff in those days because you just didn’t have one.”

When her youngest was 6, Lilian became Board Secretary of Waimate High School, working there for 29 years until her retirement in 1999. Newly retired, she attended an AGM of the Waimate Art Society and was quickly secured in the role of secretary, which she maintained for the next 10 years. She is still on the Waimate Art Society Committee and is also a life member of both that society and the Floral Art Group, “which makes me feel very humble.” In 2021, Lilian received a Waimate Civic Award for her contributions to the community.

Still a member of the Academy of Floral Art, Lilian continues to help decorate for functions, despite losing her leg in an accident in January 2023. “There’s no use being miserable,” she says. “I just enjoy life.”

When asked what she would say to someone considering volunteering, Lilian’s advice is to “Go out and do it. Wherever you can, just get out. Live your life...That’s what life’s for.”