Kay D. Hayes

Kay D. Hayes peacefully surrendered her dust back to the stars in the early evening of Jan. 8, 2021, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 63 years, Harlan, in 2017.

Kay was born to Gordon and Agnes Morrow of Williston, N.D., in 1935. Not possessed of any particularly burning desire to remain on her parents’ wheat farm after high school, she was drawn to the mountains around Missoula, Mont., to attend what was then Montana State University (now the University of Montana). There she met and married Harlan Hayes, with whom she shared many decades of wonderful adventures all across the country. While she would call herself the “camp follower,” she was, in truth, the camp standard, around whom all fell in order.

After 36 years of answering the call of military and civil service, Kay and Harlan skidded to a halt by hitting Butte, Mont., then Spokane, Wash., and finally Coeur d’Alene. There, Kay continued in her passions for anthropology, Middle Eastern archaeology and other scientific subjects related to the human condition, reading voraciously and continuously while Harlan napped prodigiously, puttered around in his amateur radio “shack” or raided the pantry for molasses cookies. From time to time, when the mood struck them, Kay and Harlan enjoyed a tall ship cruise to some exotic location or another, near the equator and far across the sea.

Kay is survived by one of her two sisters, two brothers-in-law, five children (a “Full House” as she would say: three Princes and two Princesses), 11 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and eight nieces and nephews . Unfortunately, none of the myriad dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, salamanders, fish – and one odd creature none of us has ever been able to identify, but it was cool – managed to make it to this point. Neither did any of the ponies we were never given for Christmas. Dammit!

No services are planned, nor any further farewells. Kay’s ashes will be mixed with Harlan’s and scattered in some idyllic and undisclosed location.