by Suzanne Hurt, graduate student

Her days in J-school ended more than 50 years ago. But Edith Newton Bailey can't forget the educational experiences she shared and the friendships she made at the University of Oregon.

The 1945 grad has made possible a new audio production facility with a $19,500 pledge. According to associate dean Al Stavitsky, the Edith Newton Bailey Audio Production Center will enable students to produce broadcast-quality radio and television programs as well as multimedia.

Now living in L.A. with her husband, Bailey donated the gift after visiting her alma mater in 1995 for a 50-year reunion. "It's appreciation of what a great school it is," she said. "It just sounded like something that needed to be done, to do something for broadcasting."

Bailey's background is in print journalism. She worked on the Daily Emerald as a reporter and sat on the paper's editorial board. During her junior and senior years, she served as business manager and then editor of the Oregana, the UO's former yearbook.

When Bailey attended the J-school, it was known as The Shack -- though she never knew why. She fondly remembered one of her teachers, George Turnbull, a patient and persistent man she had for senior editing class. And she also recalled a project she worked on for a class that mixed photography with writing. Bailey did a story focusing on how the Belknaps, a McKenzie River family, helped service men from World War II recover from war injuries by staying with them at their home on the river. Bailey sold both photos and the story to The Oregonian. She took photos of Martha and Roy Belknap with three of their guests.

Bailey went to work for the Astoria Budget after graduating. In Astoria, she met her future husband, A.H. "Pete" Bailey, a Tennessean and a graduate of Berea College in Kentucky. His ship was stationed at the Astoria port just before he left the Navy after serving in thewar. She quit the paper when she married.

Bailey worked in public relations at Fort Benning in Georgia and for the Mobile, Ala., Community Chest -- the local arm of the predecessor to United Way. She worked as a correspondent for Fairchild Publications, writing articles for weekly trade newspapers such asWomen's Wear Daily (now called W). While she was at home raising the couple's two sons, Edith Bailey also sold a couple stories to a monthly called True Police Cases.

The couple moved to California in 1956 and settled in Los Angeles 20 years ago. Bailey worked for 10 years as a medical claims adjuster for Retail Clerks Benefit Fund for self-insured grocery clerks. She retired about 12 years ago, but the couple owned and operated several rental properties in LA until recently.

Although she's never worked in radio, Bailey has taken herself and her husband on several trips to Europe by winning radio call-ins and trivia contests in the last decade. They plan to explore Hawaii this fall after she was the right caller to a radio station. "I've just been very lucky," she said.

Her gift will be named in her honor. The audio center will help complete the Allen Hall renovation. The center is expected to be ready for classes in January 1998.

Bailey said she still keeps in touch with friends from her days on the Daily Emerald, people like the former editor Anne (Craven) Hecker, '45, and Marjorie Young Nason, '45. "That was a great fun thing to do," she said.