Susan Hayes

Oct. 25, 1946 - July 11, 2024

Susan Gail Tichenor Hayes, born October 25, 1946, left this world too soon on July 11th, 2024 in Centralia Washington, her life cut short by a valiant but all too brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Susan grew up in Elizabeth, Hillside, and then Far Hills New Jersey, and got her bachelor’s degree in history at Randolph Macon Women’s College, one of the last all female colleges in the US. She always thought she would be a teacher, but instead ended up spending most of her working life as a Librarian after getting her masters in library sciences at Catholic University in the late 80’s. Susan was the best librarian you could ever meet, a great manager of others who took excellent care of the patrons and acquired more than enough copies of all the right books, which was her favorite part of her job. Susan's favorite things in life, aside from her children, included books, word games, travel, knitting and crocheting, watching sports (especially football, car racing and the Olympics), anything with pockets such as pants, dresses and night gowns, licorice, and rescue dogs, not necessarily in that order. The love of travel was formed during many years of moving all over the world as part of a military family, and culminated in a commitment to take as many cruises as she could in recent years. There are countless beautiful knitting and crocheting projects she completed over the years and gifted to loved ones. And after years of parenting one or two dogs at a time, she opened her home to a local rescue organization to foster unwanted dogs; however, she wasn’t very good at letting them go, so often she had 5 dogs at a time in the later part of her life. Each one of them brought her so much joy. She was preceded in death by her parents Eleanor Robinson Johnson Clark and Leslie Reeves Tichenor, as well as numerous adoring puppies she loved over the years. She leaves behind her loving daughter Catherine (and Todd) Tews, son David Hayes, grandson Sebastian Hayes, sister Holly Morrison, nephew Hugh (and Samantha) Morrison, step-sister Judy (and Allan) Fulkerson, former spouse Mike Hayes, and two devoted puppies Jack and Landy, who all miss her terribly, but know she is flying free of the burden of her physical body now, able to do all of the things she couldn’t do in the last few years of her life. A Celebration of Life will be held via Zoom on Susan’s birthday, October 25th at 2pm pacific, 5pm eastern. Since Susan would have loved to live longer so she could lavish love on more rescue dogs, in lieu of flowers or other gifts, the family is requesting donations to either or both of the following organizations: 1. The SPCA International: https://www.spcai.org/donate 2. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: https://pancan.org/ways-to-give/