Mollie Arline Kirkland Bailey

Mollie Arline Kirkland Bailey (c. 1841—October 2, 1918), also known as "Aunt Mollie" and the "Circus Queen of the Southwest," was an American businesswoman, circus performer, and spy.

Biography

Early life Mollie Arline Kirkland was born on a plantation, either in or near Mobile, Alabama, the daughter of William and Mary Arline Kirkland. Sources report her birth year as being as early as the mid-1830s to as late as 1844; the generally agreed upon year is 1841, which is the date used by her family and the Texas State Historical Commission and is featured on her headstone. As a child, Kirkland Bailey expressed a talent for performing, putting on plays with her siblings, and, being something of a tomboy, her parents enrolled her in a ladies' academy near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Career As a teenager, she met James Augustus "Gus" Bailey, a cornet player who came from a circus family; the Kirklands did not approve of their daughter's proposed union and so, in March 1858, the two eloped. For their elopement and that the two stole a wagon and several horses from the family, Kirkland Bailey's parents disinherited her. To do her part in serving the Confederacy, Kirkland Bailey nursed Confederate soldiers and reportedly served as a spy, disguised as an elderly woman selling cookies, for John Bell Hood and Jubal Anderson Early, leaving her daughter Dixie with friends in Virginia in order to do so. She returned to performing, alongside Gus and Alfred, as part of Hood's Minstrels, in 1864. After the war, they started touring on showboats as the Bailey Concert Company and did so until 1879, after which they officially began touring as a circus. Per her wishes, veterans, both of the Confederacy and the Union, and indigent children were granted free admission to shows. She reportedly had nine children with Bailey and none with Hardesty.

Death and legacy Kirkland Bailey died at St. Joseph's Infirmary, now St. Joseph Medical Center, in Houston, Texas and was buried in the Fountain Hill area of Hollywood Cemetery, in Houston, Texas. The Texas Historical Commission later erected a commemorative plaque in her honor. Within two years of her death, without her guidance, the circus closed. Today, by her children with Bailey, she has living descendants in the United States.