Retired Derry teacher loved teaching youngsters

As a young girl growing up in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKees Rocks, Frances E. Hayes was just 16 when she started at the University of Pittsburgh in 1940 and then traveled all the way to Oregon after graduation to take a teaching job where her sister lived.

“She was acccelerated in school (skipping grades) and got a full scholarship (to the University of Pittsburgh). She was like a kid among the older people” when she was attending Pitt, said her son, James T. Hayes of Los Angeles.

Mrs. Hayes, 95, of Latrobe died Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2019, at her home.

She was born Nov. 4, 1924, in McKees Rocks, a daughter of the late Karl and Frances Kauf Cigoi.

Mrs. Hayes was such a gifted singer as a contralto that she received a scholarship to the famed Juilliard School in New York City, but the family could not afford to send her, according to her daughter, Kristin Hayes Van Slyke of North Tonawanda, N.Y.

While at Pitt, she earned money working at the University Club. When she was a soloist with the Heinz Chapel Choir, she met her future husband, James T. Hayes, who also was a soloist, Van Slyke said.

After graduating from Pitt, she took a teaching job in Upper Lake, Ore., where her sister was living.

“She loved Oregon,” Van Slyke said.

Her older sister, Elizabeth, however, beckoned both back home to help with the family and they did return.

She married Mr. Hayes in 1955. He was a Presbyterian minister who was starting churches in Florida when he took a job as the associate minister at the Latrobe Presbyterian Church.

It was there that the family became friends with the family of the late Fred Rogers. James Hayes, who was born in 1960, recalled going to Christmas Eve parties at the home of Fred Rogers’ mother when he was a youngster. He also remembered playing with Fred Rogers’ puppets.

Mrs. Hayes, who earned a master’s degree in education at Pitt, became an elementary school teacher in the Derry Area School District.

“She loved children and loved teaching people,” Van Slyke said. “She had an amazing bulletin board” and once made a NASA display for her students, her children said.

Mrs. Hayes lived a healthy lifestyle and loved to send recipes of healthy foods to her friends, Van Slyke said.

“She studied at the Kushi Institute in Boston. She was really into macrobiotics,” and attended health conferences, Hayes said.

She loved to read and “really liked the Adams Memorial Library” in Latrobe, Van Slyke said.

Mrs. Hayes was preceded in death by one brother, two sisters and her former husband, Dr. James T. Hayes.

In addition to her son and daughter, she also is survived by another son, Jeffrey T. Hayes of Latrobe.

Graveside services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, Dec. 30, in Unity Cemetery, 114 Chapel Lane, with the Rev. Ronald Durika presiding. The Hartman-Graziano Funeral Home Inc. of Latrobe is in charges of the arrangements. Memorial contributions may be made to Adams Memorial Library, 1112 Ligonier St., Latrobe, PA 15650, or online at www.adamslib.org.