Mrs. Albert Hays Obituary
MRS. ALBERT HAYS, FIFTY-ONE YEARS A RESIDENT OF LAMAR, DIED, TUESDAY MORNING
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Her Death Came From a Number of Complications, That Accompanied a Severe Attack of the Flu – Suffered Terribly in Last Illness From Acute Attack of Neuritis – Funeral Wednesday Afternoon at 2:30, at the Konantz Chapel – Father an Englishman, Her Mother French – Parents Were Wedded in Liverpool Before They Came to America – Came to Barton County When Mrs. Hays Was a Child of Five – She and Her Husband, Who Survives Her, Were Married Fifty-one Years Ago, A Few Days Before Her Death – She Was Born on the Day of Lincoln’s Second Inauguration – Never Went Out, Always Confined Her Activities to Her Home, But She Was a Woman With a Most Keen and Alert Mind, An Interesting Conversationalist, and an Intelligent Observer of People and Events.
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Mrs. Albert Hays died at the Harrison emergency rooms, at 2:07, Tuesday morning. Mrs. Hays’ death came from a series of complications. In the first place, Mrs. Hays had been frail, for many years, and her nerves had not been strong. About a month before her death, she stepped outside the house on one of the cold icy days, her foot slipped and she fell, badly bruising her hip. Then, ten days before her death, she took down with the flu. Early in this illness, not realizing how ill she was, she arose from the bed to step to a nearby dresser or commode, and, as she did so, she fell to the floor.
The bruises from these falls seemed to become centers of an infection of the nerves, so she soon began to suffer terribly form acute neuritis, so that the slightest pressure upon the skin, at most any point of the body, would cause her the most distracting pain. She was moved to the Harrison emergency room, so she could have constant attendance. By Saturday, she was delerious. When her son, Mr. Fred Hays came, Saturday morning, she recognized him momentarily, as he came into the room. When Mr. Harry Hays arrived from his home a WeWoka, she knew him for a moment, but quickly relapsed into the clutch of the delerium and the pain. Monday morning, however, it was plain that the pain had left her, the muscles lost their tenseness and relaxed. The delerious condition was succeeded by a coma, and from this she did not rally.
The body was taken to the Konantz Funeral Home, to be prepared for burial. Funeral services were announced to be conducted at the Konantz Chapel by Rev. H.E. Waters, of Golden City, with interment in Lake cemetery.
Mrs. Hays’ maiden name was Miss Jane Elizabeth Ainscough. She was the daughter of James Ainscough and Susannah DeMain. Bother her parents were born in Liverpool, the great port of England, though her mother was French. Her parents were married in Liverpool, shortly before they sailed for America. There were two children, a boy and a girl, born to her father, in Liverpool, by a previous marriage. Jane’s mother nursed these two children along with eight of her own.
When her parents came to America they settled at Ft. Carroll, Illinois. There Jane Elizabeth was born, March 4th, 1865 – the day of Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration. When she was five, her father moved the family to Barton county. They first located on the old Harkless place, a short distance southwest of town. Later they moved to the Reilley neighborhood, some miles further southwest of Lamar. At the latter place, her parents both died. They sleep in a little cemetery in the neighborhood where they died.
March 9th, 1885, when she was five days past her 20th birthday, Jane, who by the way was always affectionately called Jennie, by her family, and friends, married Albert Hays. They went to housekeeping in Lamar, and here they lived together for fifty-one years. They were both intensely interested in their home, in their family and in each other. Mrs. Hays was a woman with a keen a very alert mind. But she ever made her own hearthstone, the center of her interest. She went out little, though she had close friends. Those who best knew her, always came to realize the fine qualities of her mind and the charm of her personality.
The death of Mr. [sic] Hays marks the second time, the little family circle was broken. May 25th, 1895, their three year old daughter, Winnie, died. At the death of her baby girl, Mrs. Hays was completely prostrated, and she suffered a complete nervous breakdown. Her health was never so good after this nervous ordeal.
Mrs. Hays leaves her husband, Lamar’s well known and much beloved band leader, three sons and one daughter, Mr. Arthur Hays, of Appleton City; Mr. Harry Hays, of Wewoka, Oklahoma, our well known citizen and civic leader, Fred Hays of this city and Mrs. Myrth Schaffer, who has many friends in all parts of the country.
There are two sisters, out of the original family of ten, yet living. They are Mrs. Susannah Eldridge, of Long Beach, and Mrs. Alice Ulrich, of Huntington Beach, California.
Just a few days, more than a year before her death, the writer went to the Hays’ home to talk to Mrs. Hays about her and her husband’s fiftieth wedding anniversary. We shall never forget how vividly she told us of Lamar, as it was fifty years before. Many interesting little sidelights upon the community were brought out as she talked of the days of the auld lang syne. While she was at that time frail, her interest in things about her, the animation she showed and the kindly interest she showed in her friends and acquaintances, moved us to feel that despite her lack of robust health, she yet had years of life before her. We shall always remember sitting and listening to this retiring, but interesting woman tell of her fifty years of life in the community. We came away keenly realizing that she was an unusual and a most interesting woman.
Lamar Democrat
27 Mar 1936, p. 9, col.. 1-2
Submitted by Sara Reed on July 27, 2002.