Zelma played a great role with the children in and around McComas during her teaching career. This family of 17 Bailey children loved McComas and their life there. I've corresponded with and met several of them in recent years and they have told me of their ties to our hometown of McComas. I extend my prayers and condolences to the Settle and Bailey family at their loss.

I do remember attending  Bramwell High School with her daughter Barbara Settle and her husband Steve Hill as did other McComas students back in the 1960s.

 webmaster Patty "Spicer" Smith

Zelma Louise Bailey Settle

RICH CREEK, Va. - Zelma Louise Bailey Settle, 84, of Rich Creek, formerly of Bramwell, went home to her Lord Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 in Pearisburg, Va., following a long period of declining health and a short, severe illness.

Born Oct. 9, 1920, Windmill Gap, she was the daughter of the late Grover Cleveland and Mabel O'Brien Bailey.

She was the seventh of 17 children and the oldest living daughter. She was a graduate of McComas High School and earned her undergraduate degree in education from Concord College in Athens. She was born to be a teacher, loved teaching with a passion, and never considered doing anything else. She began teaching on an emergency teaching certificate at the age of 18 in one room Barger School on "Mabe Mountain," near Windmill Gap, walking several miles to work and then back to the Bailey homeplace each day. She later taught at Sagamore Elementary School, Crumpler Elementary School, Wilcoe Elementary School and ended her career at Anawalt Elementary and Junior High School in the McDowell County School system. She was a reading specialist and taught many years in the Title 1 reading program in McDowell County. She taught literally hundreds of children to read and more importantly to love reading and literature. After the Lord and her family, she loved teaching and children.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Everette Dayton Settle; sisters, Frances Bailey, Dora Bailey Baldwin, Mamie Bailey Taylor, and Patricia Bailey Sadtler; brothers, Leonard Bailey, Bernard Bailey, Delmer Bailey, Clinton Bailey, U.G. Bailey and David Bailey.

Survivors include three children whom she brought up in the " ... nurture and admonition of the Lord," and who are all active followers of Christ today. They are her daughter, Barbara Louise Settle Hill and son-in-law, Stephen Hill of Elkview; son, Gareth Dayton Settle and daughter-in-law, Theresa Settle of Athens, Cleveland Stanford Settle and daughter-in-law, Dreama Settle of Peterstown; sisters, Bonnie Bailey Hodge of Rocky Gap, Va., Bridget Bailey Morrow of Fredericksburg, Va.; brothers, William Bailey and wife, Lucy of Palatka, Fla., Raymond Bailey of Mansfield Center, Conn., Marvin Bailey and wife, Annette of Ward, Ark., and Kenneth Bailey and wife, Betty of Casa Grande, Ariz.; grandchildren, Kristin Settle Bowman, Rebecca Leanne Settle, Leslie Katherine Settle, Matthew Stephen Hill, Christian Chord Settle, John and Ronnie Putorek, and Jeremy and Brandon Brown, as well as many greatly loved nieces, nephews and cousins.

Friend and the family may call at Cravens-Shires Funeral Home in Bluewell, today, Sept. 8, 2005 from 6-8 p.m. Services will be conducted Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 at 10 a.m. at Cravens-Shires Funeral Home, Bluewell, with Pastor Earl Hill officiating. Interment will follow the service at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bluewell.

In lieu of flowers, gifts in her memory may be made to Prosperity Methodist Church, Box 140-A Rt. 2 Rock WV 24747.

Cravens-Shires Funeral Home is serving the Settle family.