Maggie Parks Hayes

Dr. Maggie Parks Hayes was born on July 15, 1925 to Thaddeous (Thad) and Leona Parks, in Chelsea, Oklahoma. After completing high school in Chelsea, Maggie attended Oklahoma A&M where she played field hockey, was voted the engineering queen her senior year and on April 4, 1947, married Larry Hayes, her husband for 68 years. In her early years of marriage, Maggie's priority was raising her four sons. But when the youngest entered Kindergarten, she went back to Oklahoma State and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Human Relations and Child Development in 1962. After teaching Marriage and Family Relations at OSU for 6 years, the family moved to Oklahoma City and she became an assistant professor in the Home Economics Department at the University of Oklahoma in 1968. While teaching full time she continued her education at OSU and received her Master's degree in 1968 and her Doctorate in Education in 1976. Maggie taught at the University of Oklahoma for 22 years and at the time of her retirement in 1990 was the Director of Human Development and Associate Professor of Women's Studies. Maggie was very proud of her Cherokee Nation heritage; she was a member of the Wolf Clan and able to track her lineage back to Nanyehi, known in English as a Beloved Woman of the Cherokee. Maggie was preceded in death by her husband, Lawrence (Larry) K. Hayes. She is survived by her children; Larry Hayes Jr. and wife Mary, Mark Hayes and wife Jana, James Hayes and wife Rhonda, and Dan Hayes and wife Claire; grandchildren, Sara French, Kelly and Ryan Hayes, Bryan and Ben Hayes, Katharine Stucky and Abby Graves; and great-grandchildren, Arabella and William French, Parker Sheifley-Hayes and Thomas Graves. Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, February 6, 2016, at Mayflower Congregational Church, 3901 N.W.63rd in Oklahoma City, The Reverend Robin Meyers is officiating. Memorials may be made to the Mayflower Congregational Church.