| SERENA BAILEY ROSS COLLECTION (RG5570) 1884-1959 |
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SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE |
This collection contains the personal papers of Serena Bailey Ross, who was the Librarian at the Lakeland City Public Library from 1929 until her death on July 15, 1959. Serena Cobia Bailey was born on Christmas day, 1886, in Palatka, Florida, the only child of G. Loper Bailey and Rosa West Bailey. She attended St. Mary's School in Raleigh, North Carolina, and library school at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. She was confirmed in St. Mary's Episcopal Church chapel in Raleigh, North Carolina on March 27, 1904.
Miss Bailey had extensive library experience before coming to Lakeland. While she was here, Lakeland Public Library became one of only two libraries in Florida to be a government document depository. She extended library service by acquiring a bookmobile to take books to more remote parts of the city. She married Edward Perry Ross, her childhood sweetheart, on December 10, 1952 in St. Catherine's Episcopal Church, Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Ross died in 1956.
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