Manti Couple share talents,

serving far and near

 

By Emily Staley

Staff writer

Jan. 25, 2018

 

MANTI—A Manti couple has traveled to many places, sharing their talents.

After meeting, having a whirlwind romance and getting engaged just 10 days later, Clyde and Beckie Bailey of Manti have been on a good amount of adventures together.

The couple has spent their lives since then sharing their talents and blessing the lives of those around them with service.

Clyde always enjoyed performing. He performed several musicals in the Point Theater when they lived in Texas. His first lead was in “Something’s Afoot,” which his grandson is participating in at his high school this year.

After moving from Texas to Ephraim, Clyde was on a search for a way to continue sharing his talents.

Clyde explains that President Gordon B. Hinckley of the LDS Church “had asked us to use our talents, so I did a lot of research on Hyrum Smith and developed a fireside where I played him and told about his life and testified of the restoration.”

After doing so, he was then recruited to tell fairytales in the Scandinavian Heritage Festival for several years.

The couple then moved to Rhode Island where Clyde had the opportunity to perform as Hyrum Smith in Pennsylvania.

While in Rhode Island, Clyde served as a bishop of the LDS Church and did temple service in Boston.

Clyde then wrote another monologue to portray the father of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith and performed that for a youth conference in 2016.

Together, Clyde and Beckie served an LDS mission in Denmark, digitizing records for the Denmark Archives.

“Basically, we had a table with a glass lid that we would put the books in. The camera was above it, and we would take pictures of each page,” Clyde recalls.

They gave presentations once a month to explain why they were there and what they were doing and were even put in several news reports.

He said, “They treated us like rock stars there. The work we did would have cost them a lot of money, but the LDS Church did it for free.”

The couple thoroughly enjoyed their time in Denmark and getting to know the language, culture and people there, and they blessed the lives of the people they worked with in several ways.

Clyde and Beckie continue to bless the lives of those around them with their service.