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Charles "Chic" Bailey was born on December 2, 1917, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He grew up in that city and attended Butler University, graduating in 1939 with a degree in journalism. After college, he worked odd jobs until being hired by the Indianapolis Times as a cub reporter and copy boy. Before Pearl Harbor, he decided to enlist, and after basic training entered Officer's Candidate School in Fort Benning, Georgia. From there he headed to North Africa with the 9th Division, 39th Infantry Regiment, and spent the next three years in Europe, returning in October 1945. He continued as a reserve officer in the National Guard until 1954, and worked until his retirement as a right-of-way specialist with the California Department of Transportation based in Redding, California, where he raised a family of five with his wife, Mercedes. They divorced in 1975. He retired soon after and remarried in 1979 (to Dee), and died January 14, 2016, at the age of 98.