Anne H. Bailey, 82; Writer in Opera, Soaps

Anne Howard Bailey, a writer who won Emmy Awards for the opera “The Trial of Mary Lincoln” and the soap opera “Santa Barbara,” has died. She was 82.

Bailey, who lived in the Hollywood Hills nearly 20 years, died Friday of congestive heart failure at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, said her friend, Dr. Aidan O’Brien.

“She had a great lyric sense and a great sense of drama,” said Thomas Pasatieri, a composer who collaborated with Bailey on “Mary Lincoln,” which aired on PBS in 1972. “Anne was a great historian who could make history of any period come alive.”

When Pasatieri was commissioned to create an opera for television, he turned to Bailey for the libretto. Their previous work -- “The Penitentes,” about a religious sect that reenacts the Crucifixion -- would not debut until 1974. While they mulled historical ideas over, Bailey suggested the wife of Abraham Lincoln.

“Few people knew much about Mary Lincoln then, so Anne told me the story about how Mary was tried for insanity and incarcerated,” he said. “Anne went on to create a historical drama that was alive.”

The Times review called “Mary Lincoln” a “gripping, moving hour” and praised Bailey’s use of flashbacks while presenting the 1875 insanity trial. The opera earned her an Emmy for the writing of a comedy, variety or musical program.

“Anne always said she was a daughter of the South, and so was Mary Todd Lincoln,” Pasatieri said. “The words she put in Mary’s mouth were full of Southern strength and passion.”

Bailey also wrote at least two more librettos, including that for “Deseret,” which had music by Leonard Kastle. When it debuted on NBC in 1961, the Times called the story of a Mormon girl who is the prospective 25th wife of Brigham Young “the most expert and convincing opera yet produced by American authors.”

With composer Kenton Coe, Bailey wrote the libretto for “Rachel,” based on the love story of Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel, who died weeks before his presidential inauguration. The Knoxville Opera Company premiered the work in 1989.

That same year, Bailey won a daytime Emmy as a head writer on the now-defunct NBC soap “Santa Barbara.” The show was faster-paced than many soap operas and had a comedic bent reflected in mud fights and pop-culture parodies, The Times reported in 1988.

Bailey’s adoptive parents found their only child as a newborn on their doorstep July 26, 1924, in Memphis, Tenn. A doctor who placed infants of unwed mothers had alerted the couple to expect her, Pasatieri said.

By 15, Bailey was performing with a theater group and had developed an appreciation for opera that became a “lifelong passion,” Pasatieri said.

After graduating from Rhodes College in Memphis, Bailey headed to New York and television. In the 1950s, she wrote for several dramatic anthology series, including NBC’s “Armstrong Circle Theatre.”

Her most enduring television success was in the soap opera genre, where she also served as head writer on “General Hospital” (ABC) and “Days of Our Lives” (NBC) in the 1980s.

In 1974, Bailey created a short-lived soap opera for NBC called “How to Survive a Marriage” despite never having tied the knot. She often said the most important requirement to succeeding as a writer was living alone.

valerie.nelson@latimes.com