Elmo Hays

© Marietta Monitor

Friday, November 3, 2000

Submitted by: Martha N. Reddout

Services for Elmo Richard Hays of Weed, California, were held in Mt. Shasta Chapel, Mt. Shasta, California, following his death on October 19.

Mr. Hays was born in Loves Valley in Love County on October 21, 1921, the son of Will and Zona Lynch Hays. He attended Loves Valley and Marietta schools before enlisting in the Army and marrying Mary Whitehead in 1941. They had one son, Ronald.

During World War II, he was a sergeant in the 14th Armored Infantry Division and was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received while fighting the Germans in the battle for the Seigfried Line. He came back from Europe in 1946, and returned to Loves Valley to see his wife and son before re-enlisting in the U.S. Air Force for occupation duty in Europe. He and his wife later divorced.

For the next 15 years he served in Germany where he completed college and married Marianna Loeiptz. They had three children. He was a Technical Sergeant when he retired from the Air Force in California and he then taught school for 22 years near Modesto, California, before retiring again.

His ancestry traces back to Glasgow, Scotland, when an ancestor migrated to the American Colonies in 1685, settling in Virginia. From Virginia, an ancestor migrated to the Republic of Texas and on December 22, 1839, his ancestor was granted one Headright of 640 acres of land as an original settler in the Republic of Texas. The Headright land was located on the Red River near Tucks Ferry in present day Cooke County, Texas.

Later, his ancestor crossed the Red River into the Chickasaw Indian Nation and in 1908 Will and Zona Lynch Hays purchased 240 acres in Loves Valley from the Chickasaw Nation. They ranched there for 50 years and raised six boys.

Mr. Hays is survived by two daughters, Evelyn Hays and Dianna Hays of Portland, Oregon; a son, Patrick Hays of Davenport, Iowa; three grandchildren, Lori Hays Bowden of Newcastle, Derek Hays of Prue, and Nicole Hays Trigg of Torrance, California; and two brothers, Al T. Hays of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Herb Hays of Ardmore.

Preceding him in death were his wife, Marianna Hays in 1993; a son, Ronald Hays in 1995; his parents, Will and Zona Hays; and three brothers, Warren Hays, Bill Hays and Clint Hays.