Bailey’s Fine Jewelry Co-Founder ‘Mama Ann’ Bailey Dies at 100

Rocky Mount, N.C.—Ann Weaver Bailey, who rose from humble and difficult beginnings to become Nash County, North Carolina’s first female business owner, died Feb. 16.

She was 100.

Known to all as “Mama Ann,” Bailey was born on June 21, 1925, in Nash County, according to her obituary.

Her father died of tuberculosis when she was 2, and her mother died by the time she was 8 so Bailey was sent to live at the Oxford Orphanage in Oxford, North Carolina.

At the orphanage, she tackled her chores with “vigor and fury,” the Bailey family said in a statement, and learned lessons about hard work that remained with her for the rest of her life.

The summer before she was supposed to leave for college, Bailey met a man 10 years her senior, Clyde Bailey Sr.

The pair fell in love, got married, and in 1948 opened a small jewelry store in Rocky Mount, North Carolina—Bailey’s Fine Jewelry.

Clyde Sr. was a skilled craftsman and watchmaker, and Ann worked full time in the business as well, a rarity at the time.

In 1962, Bailey’s Fine Jewelry moved to a larger space in downtown Rocky Mount—11 feet wide by 100 feet long—that was always packed, the family said.

The store sold jewelry and was the largest Timex dealer in the Southeast. It also became known for selling other merchandise including vinyl records, a hot-ticket item given the popularity of Motown music in the early ‘60s.   

Clyde Sr. died of a heart attack in 1963 and Ann, then 36 with two young children, had to, as she liked to put it, “keep on keepin’ on.”

The Bailey family said this motto propelled Ann to become Nash County’s first female business owner and operator.

Men in Rocky Mount had bets on when she would go out of business. Ann’s response was, “It don’t pay to underestimate some women.”

In 1978, she handed the business over to her son, Clyde Bailey Jr., who had gone to school to learn watchmaking and the jewelry business, working alongside him for one year.

In the last few years of her life, Ann’s children and grandchildren handled the day-to-day aspects of running Bailey’s Fine Jewelry, though she still gave her opinions “loudly and clearly” and attended events on a regular basis, the family said.

Today, Bailey’s Fine Jewelry has six stores in North Carolina: its flagship in Raleigh, plus stores in Greenville, Rocky Mount, and Cary, as well as the Fox & Bailey watch shop in Raleigh and Morrison Smith Jewelers in Charlotte, which it acquired last year.

It also has a by-appointment-only showroom in the Los Angeles Jewelry District.
 
The family said while it is hard to imagine the world without “Mama Ann” in it, her story and spirit are part of everything she touched. 

“What she built was never just about milestones or years; it was about people, about relationships, about showing up, giving back, and leaving things better than she found them,” the family said. 

“As we celebrate and reflect on Mama Ann’s life, we’re reminded that her resilience, work ethic, and unwavering positivity are the very foundation of everything Bailey’s is today. We are endlessly grateful for her life, her guidance, and the example she gave us all. Mama Ann will forever be our icon, and her legacy lives on through every Bailey Box.” 

Outside of work, Ann, who always joked that her middle name was “Go,” was “ready for anything,” her obituary said. 

She loved sharing meals with friends and family, traveling, playing cards, and spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  

“If there was living to be done, Mama Ann was ready,” her obituary said.

Ann is survived by one son, Clyde Bailey Jr. (Jane); one daughter, Cindy Bailey; four grandchildren, Morgan Bailey Morgan (Doug), Trey Bailey (Marci), Gavin Stone, and Anne-Hunter Stone Stroud (Stuart); and four great-grandchildren, Bishop Morgan, Weatherly Bailey, Ford Bailey, and Windsor Bailey.

Services are scheduled to take place on Friday at 1 p.m. at Edgemont Baptist Church in Rocky Mount. 

The family will receive friends and relatives on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at Wheeler & Woodlief Funeral Home. 

A private family burial will take place at Pineview Cemetery.

The family is accepting flowers and donations can be made in Ann’s memory to Edgemont Baptist Church, P.O. Box 7293, Rocky Mount, NC, 27803.