Jan. 4, 1922-May 3, 2012
EUGENE, Ore. - Exine Margaret Anderson Bailey was born Jan. 4, 1922, in Cottonwood, to Joseph and Exine (Robertson) Anderson. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on May 3, 2012, after a long battle with multiple sclerosis.
A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Beall Concert Hall at the UO School of Music.
Article Photos
Exine began her life-long passion for music when she first took piano lessons at the age of 4. At age 13, her father sent her to McVale School of Music to learn to play the organ, so she could accompany local church services. She attended the University of Minnesota, majoring in art and music, and minoring in history. She completed her master's in voice at Columbia University in New York, where she won many singing competitions. On a dare, she competed for one of the first Metropolitan Opera Scholarship awards, which she won. She sang extensively for radio broadcast, working with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC and CBS symphonies. While in New York she also was hired by many different churches, where she first sang with Arthur Bailey, a golden-haired, blue-eyed angelic tenor whom she later married, and with whom she shared a deep, abiding and passionate love.
Exine came to the University of Oregon in 1951, where she remained as Professor of Voice and Pedagogy through 1987. She liked the idea of becoming associated with a place like Oregon where, as she put it, "one can come to belong." During her 36-year tenure at the University, Exine shaped the direction and standard of excellence not only of its vocal programs, but also the Ruth Lorraine Close Scholarship competition, funded out of an $800,000 gift to the School of Music.
Students who studied with Exine went on to teach voice at the secondary and collegiate levels at many of Oregon's public and private institutions, as well as institutions across the United States and in Europe. As Professor Emerita, she designed a firstof-its-kind, summer vocal workshop for high school students.
To all her students she was more that just a teacher. As one student wrote, out of her love for all her students, she was at different times "a taskmaster, a drill sergeant, a rooting section, a comedienne, a personal trainer, a nutritionist, a confidant, a friend and a mother." She was also elegance and grace personified to everyone with whom she came into contact.
She is survived by her brother, Roger Anderson of Sun City West, Ariz.; her nephew, David Anderson, his wife, Ginger of Reedsport, Ore.; and grand-nieces, Whitney and Lindsey of Eugene, Ore.; and hundreds of students who became her family.
Exine was preceded in death by her beloved Arthur on Dec. 25, 1991.
Remembrances may be made in Exine's name to the following: The Exine A. Bailey Vocal Scholarship, 1225 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1225; or the Greenhill Humane Society, 88530 Green Hill Road, Eugene, OR 97402.
Please sign the guest book at www.registerguard.com/legacy