Bailey, Nancy Fayrweather 1940–

PERSONAL:

Born September 24, 1940, in Los Angeles, CA; daughter of Max J. (a defense industry manager) and Joy (a homemaker) Fayrweather; married Paul M. Bailey (an owner of a construction company), October 7, 1960; children: Ronald, Scott, Christopher. Ethnicity: ‘Caucasian.’ Education: Attended University of California, Los Angeles, California State University, Long Beach, College of the Desert, and University of California, Riverside. Politics: Conservative. Religion: Evangelical Christian. Hobbies and other interests: Pastel portraiture, improvisational piano, cooking, gardening.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Mesa, AZ. E-mail—nbailey4@cox.net.

CAREER:

Homemaker and writer. Former operator of a ceramic shop and teacher of ceramics; former operator of an interior design studio in Thousand Palms, CA.

WRITINGS:

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too! (cookbook), Elderberry Press (Oakland, OR), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Nancy Fayrweather Bailey told CA: ‘As a newly graduated high school student in 1958, I was accepted to the University of California, Los Angeles as a home management major, an area that would quality me as a home economist, which could be used to teach or work in a field requiring the skills of one who has mastered the ability to manage time, energy, and money in the home. It seemed quite natural, since ultimately I wanted a home and family of my own, one that followed the pattern of the home in which I was raised.

"Over the years I moved through a series of activities that served to add to the family income without doing anything extraordinary until I wrote Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!, a book which sprang from my need to share my personally developed formula of alternative flours with which to bake, using a fraction of the carbohydrates usually found in the everyday foods we all love. Having long believed that carbohydrates is the only food group that triggers insulin production, the hormone that instructs the body to store fat, I learned to avoid carbohydrates, especially those with refined flours and most sugars. But I yearned to be able to eat some of the ordinary things we love, such as muffins, pancakes, et cetera.

"Today I am a healthy, active senior citizen with many diverse interests. My life has none of the glamour of an accomplished professional in a chosen field, but I would not exchange any of my decisions or experiences for another's. My life has been complete in every way."