William Horace Bailey was born January 30, 1910, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His father was a professor of biology and botany at Muhlenberg College. When at age five Bailey began his musical studies with his mother, a piano teacher, he was found to have perfect pitch. His violin study began when he was eleven. He studied both instruments under prominent teachers in eastern Pennsylvania.

At fifteen, Bailey moved with his family to Pasadena, California. He took up piano, harmony, and counterpoint with Clarence Mader, of Los Angeles. While still in his teens he won "Students' Class" first prize in the "Ideas Afloat Contest" held in Los Angeles with a piano composition entitled Musing, which was published in New Music magazine. Belwin, Inc., a New York music publisher, also accepted this piece for publication. Bailey graduated from Pasadena High School in 1926 and went on to Pasadena Junior College, where he completed courses in harmony, history, and musicianship. In 1929 he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College in Claremont, California. For his academic achievements he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded a two-year Honnold Traveling Fellowship.

Bailey was active in a number of southern California music organizations. As a violinist he played in the Euphony Trio, the Sierra String Quartet, the Pomona College String Quartet, and the Valley Symphony Orchestra. He was assistant concertmaster for the Pasadena Civic Orchestra and concertmaster for the Pomona Symphony. In 1936 Bailey received a master of music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied composition with Harold Hanson, Arnold Schoenberg, and Bernard Rogers. From Eastman he went to Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He taught music and conducted the civic orchestra there for six years.

In 1939 he married Gertrude Mary Axtell. During World War Two, Bailey taught radio at the Naval Radio Training Center at the University of Idaho (Moscow) and worked in a radar factory in California. In August 1945 Bailey went to Walla Walla, Washington, on a one-year assignment at Whitman College as instructor of string instruments and music theory. He ended up teaching at Whitman for more than thirty years. After his retirement in June 1975 he was called back to teach as an adjunct professor for the fall semester of 1976. He was conductor of the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra from 1945 to 1970.

William Bailey was a prolific composer, with more than seventy compositions to his credit. His major works include: Song of the Greatly Daring, a cantata written in 1947 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Whitman massacre, and performed by the Whitman College choir; The King and the Wonderful Melody, a musical guide to the orchestra, performed October 30, 1960, by the Walla Walla Symphony; and, Luminescence 1, a symphonic piece commissioned in 1975 by the Washington State Arts Commission and the Walla Walla Symphony, which has been performed by six Northwest orchestras and featured in ten concerts. Thomas D. Howells, professor of English at Whitman College, wrote the texts for the first two works. William Bailey will also be remembered for his orchestral arrangement of the Trails West music, recordings of which were played nightly in Walla Walla in the summer of 1976 as prelude and postlude music for a series of live musical programs. The variety of Mr. Bailey's compositions displays a musical facility that enabled him to write in a number of styles and genres, from songs and swing tunes that were shared with friends and family to pieces for the concert hall, including orchestral, choral, keyboard, and chamber music. Mr. Bailey also worked in musical theater and film as a composer and arranger.

In 1965 Bailey received the Town and Gown Award in memory of Judd Kimball. He was a member of the Walla Walla Symphony board of directors, the Walla Walla Valley Radio Amateurs Club, the First Congregational Church, and a number of professional organizations.

William Horace Bailey died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 15, 1977. He is survived by his widow, Mary A. Bailey, of Mercer Island, Washington Island; two sons, Bruce W. Bailey of Seattle, and Daniel A. Bailey of Caracas, Venezuela; a daughter, Joyce Beazley of Bellevue, Washington; five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.