Gwendolyn A. Baile

Gwen­dolyn Arlee Baile, 94, died at her home at the Forum at Knights­bridge Tues­day, Oct. 23, 2012.

Every­one who knew Gwen loved and admired her, and no won­der – she was beau­ti­ful and brainy, a lov­ing wife and mother and a viva­cious host­ess to the many friends and rel­a­tives who made their way to her door. No one will ever for­get her bar­be­cue sauce, chicken and noo­dles, bran muffins and potato salad. Or the fact that no one could beat her at Scrabble!

Gwen was born May 19, 1918, in Card­ing­ton, Ohio, to Paul and Ordena Ben­son. Her first job was in Colum­bus, at Trav­el­ers Insur­ance. By then, she’d already met the love of her life, Ken Baile. They eloped on Christ­mas Eve in 1937 and spent the next 74 years together before Ken’s death ear­lier this year. Gwen and Ken were mem­bers of the “Great­est Gen­er­a­tion.” They worked hard, saved their money and with their old-fashioned val­ues, raised four chil­dren. Gwen, or “Bucky”, as Ken called her, was always full of “spunk and vine­gar.” She espe­cially loved the travel that Ken’s 30-year career in the Air Force required. No mat­ter where they landed, she would always seek work or vol­un­teer in some way to help her com­mu­nity. In Alaska, she was a Grey Lady; she also proved to be a whiz in man­ag­ing edu­ca­tors’ and physi­cians’ offices in Mary­land and Colorado.

After retir­ing in Colum­bus, Gwen spent nearly two decades as a vol­un­teer at the Trad­ing Post at the First Com­mu­nity Church. Dur­ing all this time, Gwen and Ken were also build­ing a sec­ond career in real estate acqui­si­tion and man­age­ment, a ven­ture that took up much of their energy after Ken retired from Ohio State.

Gwen lived a long, splen­did life marked by grace, integrity, and pluck. Who else would have decided that the best way to move the fam­ily back to the lower 48 from Anchor­age would be to hitch a ride on a tiny boat that fer­ried mail out to the Aleut­ian Islands? While the rest of us retched below, there she was top­side, face to the wind and the rain, lov­ing the swell of the sea, a big smile on her face, always look­ing for adventure.

She is sur­vived by her brother, Leonard Ben­son of Card­ing­ton, and her chil­dren, San­dra and (Bob) Plas­tridge; Michelle Gail­iun, Susan Baile, Stephen and (Joyce) Baile, 11 grand­chil­dren and 13 great-grandchildren. Fam­ily will receive friends Sun­day, Octo­ber 28, 2012 from 1 p.m. until the time of the memo­r­ial ser­vice at 2 p.m. at SCHOEDINGER NORTHWEST CHAPEL, 1740 Zollinger Rd., Colum­bus. In lieu of flow­ers, con­tri­bu­tions may be made in Gwen’s mem­ory to Home­Reach Hos­pice, c/o Ohio Health Foun­da­tion, 180 E. Broad St., Colum­bus, OH 43215. To share mem­o­ries of Gwen, visit www.schoedinger.com.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Oct 24 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.