Born in Longview in Gregg County in east Texas, to Larry Thaddeus Bailes and the former Ethel Ballard, Bailes graduated from Natchitoches High School (now Natchitoches Central High School) and Louisiana Normal College (now Northwestern State University), both in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and the Louisiana State University School of Law in Baton Rouge.
He was the last living eyewitness to the assassination of Governor Huey Long in the Louisiana State Capitol on September 10, 1935. Bailes was working his way through law school as an elevator operator at the capitol when the "Kingfish" was gunned down, officially by the Baton Rouge physician Carl Weiss. Julian Bailes was elected as city judge of Natchitoches in 1948 and reelected in 1954.
After six years on the district court, Bailes was elected as a judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit in 1960, on which he served until his retirement in 1972.
He was one of the longest-serving judges in the State of Louisiana. After retirement from the district court, he continued to serve temporarily as needed on higher courts throughout the state.
In 1976, he was the interim judge of the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, a position he vacated when the Republican Douglas Gonzales was elected to the court. Bailes died of a stroke in Shreveport at the age of ninety-five and is interred at the American Cemetery in Natchitoches.
