Margaret Parx Hays

Margaret Parx Hays, 95, passed away on May 8, 2008, at the University of North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Margaret was born in Gainesville on November 3, 1912, the daughter of Parx Orr and Ianna (Jones) Hays. Margaret graduated from Newsome Dougherty Memorial High School in 1929; Gainesville Junior College in 1930; and North Texas State Teachers College in 1931. She later received an M.A. in education from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

After graduating from North Texas State Teachers College (now the University of North Texas), Margaret worked at the college for eleven years. Then after a short stint with the Civil Service, she accepted an offer from the State Department as a Foreign Service Clerk.

Margaret’s first overseas appointment from 1943-45 was in Buenos, Aires, Argentina, where she first did cryptography and then transferred to the political section. During the next two years, she served as vice-consul in Bogota, followed by a two-year appointment to Rio de Janeiro.

In Manila from 1956-58, Margaret held the position of Consul. Additionally, she took the foreign-service exam and achieved the position of Foreign Service Officer in 1955. By that point, she had made it an annual tradition while overseas to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal for invited guests. In 1954, she asked the USO to bring four sailors as guests and unexpectedly had a Gainesville native among them.

She also served in Mexico City; Washington, D.C., where her love of and interest in historic preservation developed, and in her favorite location, Hong Kong.

After retiring from the Foreign Service, Margaret returned to Gainesville where she pursued her interest in historic preservation by becoming involved in the effort to save the 1884 former city hall-fire station-jail from destruction. She said it sounded “like a good fight”. That effort proved successful and the Morton Museum of Cooke County opened in that location. Margaret remained involved with the museum for decades, serving as a member of the staff, as a volunteer, and on the Board of Directors. The Margaret Parx Hays library inside the museum is dedicated to her.

She also helped with the establishment of the Cooke County Historical Commission and over the years devoted hours of service to the Commission.

Margaret also assisted in the organization of the Cooke County Mental Health Clinic, where she took on a full-time position as a counselor in 1973. She retired from the clinic in 1978. Never one to ever really retire, Margaret ran for and was elected Mayor of Gainesville, becoming the first and still only female to serve in that position.

For twenty years, Margaret was involved with the Historic Preservation Foundation’s effort to raise the funds to restore the 1902 Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Gainesville. Her grant writing skills eventually brought in the necessary funds to help complete that project.

Many awards came her way over the years, including the naming of a dormitory at North Central Texas College in her honor.

She was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest. To the end, she continued to be interested in education, believing that no one was ever too old to learn something new. She also continued to be involved in projects such as planning exhibits of her weavings from her various travels, so they could be enjoyed by the residents of her retirement center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Her humor and her unwavering loyalty and support will be missed by her family, friends and colleagues.

Her passing marks an end of an era in Gainesville, but her legacy lives on in the buildings she helped to preserve, the history she saved from being lost, and the people she mentored to follow in her footsteps.

She is survived by her nephew, Wesley M. Wallace, M.D., and his wife, Raine Lee of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; her nephew, Wendell Hays Wallace and his wife, Mary of Centennial, Colorado; her nephew, Joe Piott and his wife, Jeanette of Puyallup, Washington; her niece, Mary Lou Piott O’Neil and her husband, Denny of Waco, Texas, and several great-nephews and nieces. She was preceded in death by her parents, and sisters, Lou Anna Hays Piott and Dorothy Estelle Hays Wallace.

Private interment will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 12, 2008, at Fairview Cemetery in Gainesville, under the direction of the Geo. J. Carroll & Son Funeral Home. Funeral service will follow at 2 p.m. at Whaley United Methodist Church, officiated by Rev. Denny Hook. A reception will take place afterward at the church.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions may be made to the Cooke County Historical Commission; c/o Cooke County Judge Bill Freeman; Cooke County Courthouse; Gainesville, Texas.