This is a pastel drawing of Jack Oral Bailes, drawn in 1982. It's a very good likeness.

The name given to Jack when he was born was Oral Bailes, with no middle name, nor was Jack a part of the name he received at birth.

But after he grew a little bit he decided he didn't like the name Oral and started calling himself Jack. He would become known to all his friends and family from there on for the rest of his life as Jack Bailes.

When he died, my grandmother, his wife, (who was Vadia Lois Moses Jones Bailes, my grandmother) knew he preferred being called "Jack" so when she ordered his grave stone she had them carve his name into the stone to say Jack Oral Bailes.

Jack Bailes is my step-grandfather, Jack was my grandmother's second husband. Her first husband, Vernon Eugene Jones, died in 1968. Jack was caring for his mother in 1968 and continued to do so until she died in 1976. He'd never married during his mother's lifetime, but after she died he began courting my grandmother and they were wed later that year, 1976.

Jack was 62 when they married and though their marriage happened after they were too old to ever have any children together, Jack was suddenly thrust from a quiet life with his mother and a very small extended family, into my grandmother's family, which at the time Jack married her my grandmothers children, grandchildren, and spouses of those married numbered about 40 people.

By the time Jack passed away in 1995 the descendents of my grandmother had about doubled to 80 people. Jack was present for all those births and all that welcoming into the family that a baby enjoys. And Jack tried his very best to learn how to live in a loud chattering world filled with many relatives. After the quiet life he'd lived for his first 62 years, his last 23 years were filled with family and much activity. Jack seemed to have learned to like it. He had some troubles getting used to it from time to time, but he kept on trying until the day he died in 1995 while visiting some of those family members in Texas.

Later on, when my grandmother died in 2011 the number of her direct descendents had risen to more than 100. And thats NOT including their spouses.

After her death in 2011 during the the time from then until now, in 2017, the number of her direct descendents is now approaching 130 people, again, not including spouses.

Jack Bailes with his wife, Vadia Lois Moses Jones Bailes, about 1985 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.