General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> Sr.
OBJE: C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\Genealogy pic\HTB Family.jpg
OBJE: C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\Genealogy pic\herbert t bailey.jpg
The Raleigh News & Observer
August 26, 1962
Tar Heel of the Week
H. T. Bailey of Tarboro
By Roy Parker, Jr.
"Tarboro is a proud old town, it takes about 15 years to br
eak in," says H. T. Bailey.
With a grin, Bailey admits: "I was a newcomer until I got e
lected mayor."
The 50-year-old Bailey, a native of Hobgood just down the r
oad from proud Tarboro, "broke in" fast as the community'
s mayor, and his administration coincided with a great lea
p forward in Tarboro's economy.
Proud of the record, although giving major credit to Tarbor
o's new generation of leaders, Bailey is out of the publi
c position right now.
"I've got four children to send through college.  I'm goin
g to lay out of politics for awhile, but I'll be back in"
, he promises.
Bailey means he will stick to business as the sales directo
r of Southern Concrete Products Company of Rocky Mount, o
f Stevenson Brick and Block of New Bern, and Goldsboro Bloc
k Company.  All three firms provide building materials fo
r schools, hospitals, and other big public projects in east
ern North Carolina.
MAIN INTEREST
Moving from the job of helping Tarboro meet the challenge
s of a new day to the job of working for his children's edu
cation, Bailey's main interest now is in East Carolina Coll
ege.
He has no less thatn three sons at the Greenville instituti
on, and most of his conversations these days is apt to be a
bout the activities on the Greenville campus.  One son, Bil
l, is slated to be the ECC football team's first string ful
lback this fall.  Another, Herbert Jr., has one more year a
t ECC, and then plans  a career as an English professor.  R
eynolds Bailey, an ECC freshman, wants to be an accountant
.  Back home in Tarboro, daughter Sally Gray is a junior a
t Tarboro High.
Typical of the man-of-all-talents type of community leader
s who are pushing their towns to meet the need of the moder
n day, Bailey has been active in the entire spectrum of com
munity activities.
Industry-hunting was the main effort during his tenure as m
ayor, from 159 until last year.  Tarboro's first families
, men whose wealth was made from the braod tabaccolands o
f the Roanoke valley area, turned their outlook toward th
e future, and the city which had been known for its ancien
t charm burst into a frenzy of modern activity.
LANDED INDUSTRY.
In two years, Tarboro landed three big industries, adding n
early 1,000 jobs to its economy.  The community set up an i
ndustrial development organization that has been the envy o
f its neighbors, staffed by a $15,000-a-year executive.  Ba
iley as mayor and longtime chamber and merchants associatio
n leader, was in the thick of the industry-hunting activiti
es.
He is proud that Tarboro has pulled itself up by its own bo
otstraps.  "We did it all with local capital," he says, an
d gives full credit to the enlightening willingness to tak
e a chance of the community's wealthier citizens who coul
d have continued in their old ways.
"There were some who held Tarboro back, but they are on th
e go now," he says.
Bailey credits his wife, school teacher Sally Gray Hargrov
e Bailey, with "pushing me into these jobs."  Whoever is re
sponsible Tarboro folks say Bailey was one of the first "ne
wcomers" to preach the line that Tarboro needed to keep u
p with the times.
Just after World War II, he headed the chamber of commerce
.  He organized the local Jaycees in 1947 and was its firs
t president.  That same year, he helped organize the Tarbor
o High School band.  He worked on the board of the Tarbor
o federal housing project, one of eastern North Carolina'
s first public housing programs.  The project provided 10
0 housing units, 50 for Negroes.
PENCHANT FOR POLITICS.
His penchant for politics came naturally, too.  Bailey's fa
ther is still active in Hal