Mary Edith Breard Hayes

Mary Edith Breard Hayes died peacefully on April 27, 2019, following a lengthy illness.

She was born August 17, 1924 to the marriage of Daniel Armand Breard, Jr. and Edith Griffing Breard. Known as “Sissie” to her siblings Armand, Jack, Nellie, and Reneau, and to her innumerable aunts, uncles and cousins, she was an auburn-haired, much loved youngest child who adored her family, her community and its history, and her church. In later life, she would enthrall her children and grandchildren with stories of her childhood during the 1920’s and 30’s, Monroe’s streetcars and saltwater natatorium, the Ouachita river and its floods, the construction of the levee and bridge, her horse and dogs, train rides to Rayville or Collinston to catch “the Doodlebug” south to Baskin to visit her Griffing relatives, or on to Gilbert to her mother’s farm on Bayou Macon, and of her family and their exploits.

After graduating from St. Matthew’s Catholic school in 1941, she attended Northeast Junior College and obtained her undergraduate degree from Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, Texas. She studied at the University of Havana, then worked for the State of Louisiana as a social worker providing intervention and protection to children in need of assistance. She pursued a graduate degree at Tulane University and at St. Louis University until she met and married Thomas M. Hayes, Jr., an attorney and naval officer, in 1950, and diverted from completing her thesis to a lifetime of devotion to her husband and their six children.

In 1954, soon after the birth of their third child, her husband Tom was paralyzed by polio and quarantined in a sanitarium in Alexandria. Rejecting physician advice that she abandon him to institutional care, she transferred him to St. Francis Hospital in Monroe for physical rehabilitation. Their devotion to each other and their complete trust in God brought him from mere survival to miraculous recovery and the resumption of his practice as a lawyer. Despite his physical limitations, they enlarged and raised their family and enjoyed an active life together for more than 40 years.

Together, she and Tom were among those who worked to found Jesus the Good Shepherd Church, its elementary school, and St. Frederick High School. She was awarded the Diocesan Service Medal by Bishop William Friend. She was a member of the DAR, the Town and Country Garden Club, and the JGS Sanctuary Society, and while she loved many activities, including travel and working in her yard, she was happiest in the company of her husband, children, grandchildren and her many, many relatives, all of whom she loved deeply.

Mary Edith is survived by her brother Reneau Griffing Breard; her children, Mary Breard McCampbell and her husband Bill of Alexandria, Louisiana, Thomas Moore Hayes III and his wife, Karen, of Monroe, Patrick David Hayes and his wife, Chela, of Waynesboro, Virginia, Susan Sullivan Lyon and her husband Tom of Mobile, Alabama, Michael Daniel Hayes and his wife Mig of Durham, North Carolina, and Peter Bernard Hayes, and his wife, Kim, of Fort Pierce, Florida; her fourteen grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren; and by many loving nieces, nephews, and cousins and their children and grandchildren.

Visitation will be held at Mulhearn Funeral Home in Monroe on Sunday from 5 to 7 p.m. A funeral mass will be held at 10:00 AM on Monday, April 29, 2019 at Jesus the Good Shepherd Church with Rev. Job Edathinatt, Rev. Keith Garvin and Deacon Scott Brandle officiating; burial to follow at St. Matthews Cemetery. Pallbearers are her grandsons and other family members.

Mary Edith’s family extends their sincere thanks and appreciation to her sitters, particularly Lilly Lauhoff, Mary Lauhoff, Taylor Patrick and Alexis Patrick, for their devoted care to Mary Edith, and to the staff and residents at St. Joseph’s Assisted Living for their help and friendship. Memorials may be made to Jesus the Good Shepherd Catholic Church or St. Frederick High School.