MATTHEW BURNETTE

Staff Writer

The Coffee County Manchester Public Library will be hosting an event on Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. with Dr. Lona Bailey where she will be discussing one of her books about a face everyone knows but most do not know the story behind.

“That’s The Way She Became Alice” explores the life of actress Ann B. Davis, most known for playing housekeeper Alice Nelson on the hit sitcom The Brady Bunch.

“I’ve always been a fan of the Bradys. I grew up on that show,” explained Bailey. “Of course, as a millennial I was reliant on Nick at Nite and TV Land to see them. But I love the show, and I think everybody feels like Alice was somebody they would like for a friend or a neighbor.”

Bailey, the Grand Marshal of this year’s Old Timers Day parade, says she was thrilled that she was asked by the library to come and talk about the book.

“That’s such a fun type of event and I love our library,” she enthused. “I’ll have a presentation and part of it will be digital on the life of Ann. B. Davis just kind of sharing her story verbally in hopes that folks would be interested enough to check out the book.”

The event will also feature a Q&A with the author.

Bailey says that in her research for the book she discovered that there had never been a full-length biography written about Davis despite being essentially the “backbone of the show.”

She found out that Davis has a fascinating story including being a devout Christian. Bailey was able to talk with people from Davis’s life as well as people from the show including Barry Williams who played oldest son Greg.

“It was so cool just to hear his memories of her and his personal impressions of her,” said Bailey. “I don’t think she was terribly different than her character. I think she was very kid and very much a natural caregiver.”

“It was great fun to do the research and talk to people who knew her personally.”

The first thing Bailey says that surprised her about Davis’s life is the fact that she was a twin.

“That was kind of just an interesting thing to think of there being two Alices. That was kind of cool,” she said.

One thing that Bailey says fascinates her is the fact that Davis left Hollywood shortly after the Brady Bunch ended and gave up the glamorous life for her Christina convictions, choosing to move to Texas into a Christian commune led by a bishop and his family where she spent the last years of her life.

“She made it in Hollywood, but she chose a very modest and selfless way of life after that,” said Bailey. “That’s something you don’t hear about too often, so that was pretty interesting to me.”

Bailey has written several books where she tells the stories of female Hollywood figures whose stories were either never told or forgotten. She explained that the subject matter sort of fell into her lap in 2020.

“The more I did it, the more I wanted to do it,” she said.

Bailey started with Virginia Gregg, the voice of Norma Bates in Hitchcock’s classic Psycho, and says she felt it was an honor to share that story with the world.

“It was a fun experience to research her life and from there it just kind of cascaded into several other books,” she recalled. “Most everybody appreciates Hollywood and a lot of the stories that we hear about the A-list celebrities, and of course those are fascinating, but there are so many other stories that we don’t hear as much about.”

Other stories Bailey has told include those of Betty Lou Gerson, Anne Baxter, Cathy Lewis, Joan Banks Lovejoy and Paula Winslowe. She noted that, while these “B- and C-List celebrities, they had more time for personal lives than bigger stars and got to have different experiences.

“I’m glad that I can be a digger into some of these stories,” added Bailey.

She also explained that a recurring theme in the stories she’s been able to tell has been motherhood, something she connects with herself.

“Not everyone was a mother, but many of them were, and so as a mother myself of still very young children I’ve learned so much from their stories and from the way that they have parented,” explained Bailey. “What’s really cool is in most of the cases I’ve been able to interview their children and that is so fascinating the way they conceptualize their mothers’ legacy and their relationship with her before she died and carrying on her legacy after.”

“It’s been very enriching and has been great for me personally, and I think I’ve learned a lot from each of them.”