“The word ‘gusto’ could have been invented for her”
Jo Bailey sailing on Sea Witch with Sammy the dog and Shanghai the cat – Contributed photo
Jo Bailey, who worked on the Friday Harbor Journal as a reporter and columnist for 12 years beginning in 1977, died October 13 in Port Townsend.
She came here on her 30′ wooden sloop, Sea Witch, and despite having almost no newspaper experience persuaded Larry Duthie, then the new owner of the Journal, to hire her.
She was hired first to write a regular column about the waterfront, and produced columns that were on-time and accurate, so he soon offered her a reporting job. As he tells it now, “She knew nothing about news writing, but what she did have from the beginning was a keen nose for news and boundless enthusiasm. She could ferret out stories like an old pro.”
For example, she discovered that the school board was meeting secretly on the ferry, trying to figure out how to deal with a superintendent who was over-spending his budget. She got the story, and the secret meetings came to an end.
Bill Ristow, whom Larry had hired as his new editor in 1981, calls her a “good solid community journalist, curious about what was going on and eager to tell stories about it to her readers, and she knew how to tell those stories both honestly and with respect for their subject.”
He adds, “But I must say what I remember the most about Jo, both as a colleague and years after that as a friend, was her nature. The word ‘gusto’ could have been invented for her. Everything she did, everyone she talked to or about, she did it with enthusiasm and an infectious spirit that was impossible to resist.” Continue Reading