Gwendolyn "Gwen" Rose (Gibby) Hayes died on December 9, 2025, in Mars, Pennsylvania, where she had lived to be closer to family since moving from Rochelle in 2014. She was surrounded by family when she passed away at age 96.

Gwen was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 12, 1929, to Murrell Gibby and Rosellen Murphy Gibby. She excelled at every level of her education, both academically and in a dizzying array of extracurricular activities. Her senior entry in the Southeast High School yearbook included this partial list: editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, president of the Girl Reserves, Knightlites theater group, American Association of University Women (high school chapter), Commercial Club, senior class secretary, junior class treasurer, Beta club treasurer, Teen Town committee, a cappella choir, and girls' chorus. In her youth she was a versatile athlete who participated in the sports of archery, six-on-six basketball, field hockey, bowling, volleyball, swimming, ice skating, and table tennis.

She attended Park College in Parkville, Missouri, graduating with a degree in sociology in 1951. She then moved to Chicago, where she flew through the master's degree program in education at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1952. Urged to pursue a doctoral degree by U of C professors, she decided she had had enough of studying and wanted to start teaching. Before she had even finished her master's, Rochelle Schools superintendent, David Crawford, snapped her up to teach eighth grade at Central School.

Not long after arriving in Rochelle, she met local pharmacist William "Bill" Hayes, a third-generation Rochellite, whom she married at St. Patrick's Church on December 26,1953. Gwen left teaching while raising four of their five children. She then went back to work as an educator, teaching sixth grade at Tilton Elementary School until her retirement. (To family members, it seemed she never finished grading papers, not even on vacation.)

Besides teaching, she dedicated much of her 62 years in Rochelle to social justice and humanitarian causes. Many of Gwen's volunteer activities in Rochelle centered around St. Patrick's Church. She took part in the Christian Family Movement (CFM), the church's Peace and Justice Committee, and the church choir. She was also a eucharistic minister, delivering Holy Communion to people unable to attend church. For her work with the Illinois Migrant Council, she received the Diocese of Rockford's Catholic Woman of the Year award in 1966.

She was a proud member of the Rochelle chapter of the League of Women Voters, for which she held several board positions.

After retirement and her move to Pennsylvania, Gwen still had a beautiful singing voice, and remembered and often sang scores of hit songs from the 1940's and 1950's. Well into her 90s, she surprised family members by singing the French national anthem in French and English back to back. She also played the piano and, one afternoon when she was 94, she played every song in a music book of 1940's big band classics.

Never considered vain by anyone who knew her, Gwen nonetheless could often be found re-reading the book about her life on which she, her son, Jack, and daughter-in-law, Regina collaborated, and which they published in 2024. It includes stories of both the joyous and difficult parts of her life.

Gwen is survived by her five children: John "Jack" (Regina White), Falls Church, VA; Lynn, Mars, PA; Patricia "Patty" Crawford (Don), Antioch, TN; William "Bil" (Julie Hanson), Rochelle, a longtime member of the Rochelle City Council; and Michael "Mike" (Cheri), Cranberry Township, PA. She was predeceased by her husband, Bill, in 2010. Her four grandchildren are Tyler (Bridget Esterhuizen) Crawford, Susannah Crawford, Will Hayes, and Kiley Hayes. Freya and Sable Crawford are her great-granddaughters. She is also survived by her brother and sister, John Gibby and Marilyn Hon, as well as many nieces, nephews, godchildren, and at least one cousin in Wales.

Gwen will be laid to rest next to her husband at St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery in a private ceremony in the spring.