Mary Ann (Davis) Hayes

Mary Ann (Davis) Hayes

Mary Ann (Davis) Hayes passed from this Earth on Thursday, May 11, 2023. She was born December 13, 1929 in Avant, Oklahoma to Everett Davis and Vivian Henry Davis. She grew up and attended elementary and secondary education at Avant Public School graduating as Salutatorian of the 1947 class. After graduating she attended nurses training at St. John Hospital in Tulsa. While in training she met and married Louis Hayes and of this union four children were born.

Proceeding her in death were her father Everett, mother Vivian, brother Donald Pete Davis, sister Bernice Davis Croslin, husband Louis, and son Ronnie. She felt a lifelong void as a result of her mother’s death when she was five years old.

She is survived by her sons David and Barbara of Parkhill Oklahoma, Roger and Kathy of Wagoner, Oklahoma, and daughter Kathy and John Parsons of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is also survived by 10 grandchildren.

She was a talented artist creating beautiful oil on canvas still art. She loved to create Native American pottery images as her subject and sometimes painting old barns on saw blades. She won awards in those areas at local fairs. She loved to read extensively and go to garage sales. She was a gifted antique furniture refinisher. She was especially interested and has done extensive genealogy of the Davis and Henry family. She had a keen knowledge of many old cemeteries as well. She was one of the last pioneer Avant historians. She never met a stranger when talking about Avant.

She wanted to mostly be remembered as a homemaker. She worked outside the home after her children were grown, but has said her greatest joy was raising her kids when they were growing up. Her most cherished gift to her children was telling them about Jesus. She was an immaculate housekeeper. She will be remembered as a stay-at-home Mom who cooked the best chicken and home-made noodles from scratch, wonderful fruit pies with the flakiest crust and many dinners with wild game such as squirrel, rabbit, duck, geese and quail that her boys and husband brought home.