Hayes couple still happy after 72 years of marriage

By Editor | August 1, 2012 |

Darel and Mary Hayes recently celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary, and they remember – with smiles– their first meeting as children, when Darel was a new student at the school Mary was attending.

Their bonding of childhood friendship from the start resulted in an enduring, happy marriage.
The beginning
“Bingham was where we met,” Darel said. “We moved from over by Ramsey to Bingham in 1935, I think.” (Darel was about 13 years old and Mary was about 11).
“The schoolteacher told them, ‘We are going to have a couple kids come in from the country, and I want you to go out in the yard and welcome them,’” Darel said.
“Well, they were out there (when) my younger sister, Opal, and I got there. There was a half dozen or so kids down there. Mary saw me, and it was love at first sight,” Darel said, laughing.
Mary laughed, also, but she didn’t contradict Darel.
“I had to wait for her to grow up a little,” he said, but admitted she was well worth the wait.
“We thought a lot of each other ever since we first met,” he said. “I used to torment her at school and treated her mean. I had a safety pin and she sat ahead of me, and I’d stick that safety pin up there and make her jump a little.”
Mary said, “He would put it in the toe of his shoe and stick it through the seat. The first time I yelled, but when I realized I shouldn’t holler, after that, I didn’t. He finally quit doing that,”
Darel added, grinning, “I didn’t stick it far enough to hurt.”
Actually, Darel has been very protective of Mary, after his boyish pranks were over. The friendship grew into puppy love as they grew.
“I played basketball and she was my cheerleader,” he said.
He and Mary recalled that Millie Evans Garland and Doris were the other two cheerleaders. “She was a cute one,” Darel said of Mary.
“The only thing, I’d make a basket once in a while, and Donald Davis and I looked so much alike, they would cheerlead for him. I let it go a time or two, then I couldn’t stand it any longer and I told them, ‘Quit cheering for Don when I make the basket.’”
“Well, they would have their back to us, and they looked so much alike, it was hard too tell them apart,” Mary laughingly said in defense.
The Proposal
Mary remembers Darel’s proposal very well, but said to let Darel tell it.
“We went to the show,” Darel said. “Don’t remember what kind of movie it was, but I think it was a love story.
I asked her about marrying me, but I asked her in a way that, if she turned me down, she would think I was just kidding her.”
Mary said, “He said it like it was a joke.”
“That’s where we decided, really. I don’t remember that movie and I don’t remember the movie we went to right after we were married,” she said.
The Elopement
Darel and Mary eloped, but his brother-in-law and sister went with them. “We went to St. Louis, to the justice of the peace, “ Darel said.
“Back then, you had to have a test, then we just went down there and got our license – I was eighteen and Mary was sixteen.”
They went to a movie at the Fox Theatre right after their wedding. “I don’t remember that movie either,” Darel said. “We came home after the movie and told her folks.
“The only thing I regret is that we didn’t tell her folks, and that we weren’t married by a preacher. But I was afraid that her folks wouldn’t let her get married yet,” Darel said.
“I knew I could get my folks to let me. But her mom always liked me.”
“He kept talking to me through the movie,” Mary said, laughing.
…And the Hayes Family Grew & Grew
Mary and Darel became the parents of four children – Connie, Frankie Darel, Patty, and Jessica.
“We had all our kids at home,” Darel said. “The doctor would come back on the ninth day and check on them.
When Jessica was born, Frankie met the doctor on the porch and said, ‘I thought you were going to bring a boy; we ordered a boy.’
Mary added, “Frankie was wanting a brother so bad.”
“Of course,” Darel said, “as soon as I saw her, I wouldn’t have traded her for any boy.
Upclose
Darel was always athletic, playing basketball and baseball. A good hitter, he was asked to be a pinch-hitter in one game.
“I never struck out, but I usually just made a base-hit. But when I pinch-hit for the game, I made two home runs. I was a hero,” he said.
Darel farmed some, and he later drove heavy equipment and helping on I-70 to build overpasses and exits, until he retired.
He trained birddogs, and remembered a favorite one, “Stephanie Rose.” He also talked about having dogs when he was a kid.
When his family would get home from church on Sunday, his mother would tell him to go catch and kill a couple of chickens for dinner. His dog would help him.
“He would stay on one chicken until he caught it and then hold it down with his front feet across it, Darel said.
Mary was a stay-at-home mother until the children were all grown, and then she worked out of the house some. Known as a good cook, her banana cream and coconut cream pies were favorites at church get-togethers and with her family.
Mary taught the adult women class at Temple Baptist Church for several years. “We went to Sunday school every Sunday, and I would take my book home and study it. I enjoyed that.”
She and Darel are long-time members of Temple Baptist, and have served in different capacities.
And Now
Darel and Mary now live at the Fayette County Hospital Long Term Care, in a pleasant, cheery room with a large photograph of their family dominating one wall, and a precious old photo of them when they were a young married couple.
At last count, there were 66 family members.
Mary attributes their long happy marriage to the fact that they always cared for one another and looked after each other.
Mary said, “If he was doing something I didn’t think he should be doing (for fear of injury), I would tell him, or if I thought he should be doing something and I told him, he would do it.
“He always did the same for me. We looked after and took care of one another.”
Those feelings haven’t changed and neither, it seems, has their love and affection for one another, or their devotion to one another.