Obituary of William Francis Hayes (written by Jack Hayes, 5/31/2010)
He met and talked to boxer Muhammed Ali--three times. He was inspired to run for political office by President John F. Kennedy and appeared in a television commercial for President Barack Obama. He outdrove Jack Nicklaus. He had open-heart surgery, a pacemaker, a defibrillator and, as a result, lived almost two decades longer than his father. He never had a meal he didn't like.
William Francis "Bill" Hayes was perhaps the quintessential example of what has been called the "greatest generation" of Americans. He died at home on Memorial Day, May 31, 2010, from complications of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
Bill Hayes was born on August 19, 1926, in the stately home on South Third Street in Rochelle where his son, City Councilor Bil Hayes, lives today. The home was built by his grandfather, Francis Xavier "F.X." Herrmann, co-founder of the First National Bank of Rochelle and the son of German immigrants.
Until his graduation from Rochelle Township High School in 1944 in the midst of World War II, Hayes lived in that home with his parents, Alberta Margaret Herrmann Hayes and William Timothy Hayes, and his only sibling, Kenneth J. Hayes, all of whom are deceased. The proximity of that house to the Rochelle Country Club and his seemingly innate competitive spirit were factors in Hayes's noteworthy success as a golfer.
Hitting the links first as one of a small gang of "South Side" kids who served as caddies, he went on to become club champion four times, the first time at age 16 when he was a junior in high school and the second time days after he graduated from high school and hours before entering military service at Fort Sheridan in Chicago.
Hayes trained with the U.S. Army Air Corps at Michigan State College and in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he was stationed when World War II ended.
As far as anyone knows, Hayes is the only member of the Rochelle Country Club to win at least one championship trophy every decade for five consecutive decades. Two of those trophies came in father-son tournaments: in 1969 with son Jack and 1982 with son Mike. He hit three holes-in-one, the second one a few weeks after open-heart surgery.
Hayes was known for his unorthodox style of driving the ball off the tee. He never took a practice swing but instead waved his club rapidly back and forth several times behind the ball, wiggling his posterior in rhythm to his club's movements, and then let loose with legendary drives of the sort that once bested PGA standout Jack Nicklaus's effort in a driving exhibition and frequently sailed over mature oak trees and onto the green on par four holes at Rochelle Country Club.
Not a one-sport athlete, Hayes played basketball and football throughout high school. As a center on the football team he received the coveted Hackett Trophy most- valuable-player award. Later, while attending pharmacy school at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he was a "walk-on" member of the football team for a short time.
In 1938 Hayes's father founded Hayes Drug Store at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Lincoln Highway, and, beginning when he was a pre-teen, Hayes worked in that store almost every day, eventually taking over as proprietor in the 1950s after his father developed a debilitating heart ailment.
In his 2006 autobiography Boy, We've Had a Lot of Fun! Hayes recalled that, before reporting to classes at nearby St. Patrick's elementary school, he would go to the basement of the drug store, remove the "clinkers" (burned remnants of coal) from the store's furnace and fill the stoker with coal for the day.
It was at the drug store in the early 1950s that Hayes met his future wife Gwendolyn Rose Gibby, a Kansas City native who was teaching school at the time at Central grade school, across the street from St. Patrick's School.
Family legend has it that the young school teacher walked into the store one day looking for a battery for her flashlight, and Hayes asked her out after local funeral home director Steven Dee, Jr. bet him a dollar he couldn't get a date with her. They were married on December 26, 1953 at St. Patrick's parish. They had five children, four in rapid succession and one a sort of late-arriving afterthought.
Hayes sold the drug store in 1985 when it became clear that a major chain store with a pharmacy would be coming to Rochelle and that he would likely be unable to compete as a small independent businessman with the economic might of the "big box store."
After selling the store, he went to work for Barker's Drugs, Rochelle's oldest drug store, and the place where his father began work as a pharmacist in the 1920s. He worked there until he was 81 years old, never formally retiring.
Inspired by John F. Kennedy who he had met during a presidential campaign appearance at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Hayes launched his political career in 1963, running successfully for Rochelle City Council.
"Jack Kennedy was young, Irish and Catholic, and so was I," Hayes pointed out in his memoir.
Hayes's subsequent campaign for mayor was unsuccessful, but he continued his public service many years later, serving for 14 years on the Ogle County Board, many of those years as the only Democrat on the board.
He was a proud Democrat and relished the political give-and-take with opponents in the traditionally Republican stronghold of Ogle County. Despite his loyalty to the Democratic party, he supported Rockford independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson in 1980, and once introduced him at a campaign fundraiser in Chicago.
Hayes was an ardent early supporter of Barack Obama and appeared in a television commercial during Obama's successful run for U.S. Senate. One of his proudest moments came in 2005 when Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois ushered him to Senator Obama's Washington D.C. office where Hayes had a ten-minute conversation with the future president.
Another high point in his life came in 1987 when his son Mike made national news with his "Many Pennies for Mike" project, which enabled him to pay his way through the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, primarily through donations of pennies.
"It's been a great life," Hayes concluded in his autobiography.
Hayes was a lifelong member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church, and worked diligently to raise funds for construction of the current church and parish center.
A member of the board of Rochelle Community Hospital, he contributed to the construction of several wings of the hospital.
From his seat on the Ogle County Board, he advocated for the establishment of Focus House, a county youth-care facility.
He was a member of the Rotary Club for 59 years, a longtime member of the Rochelle Chamber of Commerce, and numerous other organizations.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years Gwendolyn Rose Gibby Hayes; children John William Hayes and wife Regina Mary White of Inverness, Florida; Lynn Ann Hayes of Sewickley, Pennsylvania; Patricia Jean Crawford and husband Donald Reid Crawford of Brentwood, Tennessee; William Timothy Hayes and wife Julie Ann Hanson of Rochelle; and Michael Joseph Hayes and wife Cheryl Askeland Hayes (also from Rochelle) of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; grandchildren Tyler Hayes Crawford, Susannah Rae Crawford, William Michael Hayes and Kiley Alexandra Hayes; and first cousins Emmagene Brennan Hope, Maralyn Brennan Guthrie, John Brennan, William Brennan, Phyllis Conery, and John Hamaker.
The family requests that memorial contributions be made to St. Patrick Catholic Church, Focus House or the Ogle County Hospice Association.
Visitation will take place from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, June 3, at the Unger-Horner Funeral Home, with a celebration of life service at 7:00 p.m. Funeral Mass at St. Patrick Catholic Church at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 4, 2010. Burial at St. Patrick Cemetery.