I wanted to share with the you all the obituary of our friend, Miller Hays. He was quite a man. Hubby leaves in the morning to attend the services and to be a Pall Bearer. Sadly, I cannot go this time, but I know in my heart that Miller knew how I felt about him.
Miller back when he was a Captain on the 747 for Pan Am.
Miller B. Hays of Kerrville, Texas—airline pilot and world traveler—passed away on January 19, 2008, after a brief illness. Mr. Hays was born in Golden, Colorado on May 15, 1918 to Sarah Bevan Hays and Leon Percival Hays. During his school years, the family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where Miller attended Classen High School and Oklahoma City University, as well as Central State Teachers’ College in Edmond, Oklahoma. His lifelong fascination with scientific and mechanical knowledge led him into a career in aviation. During World War II, he was responsible for the training of pilots at a base in Ballenger, Texas.
After the war, he went to work for American Overseas Airways; he was one of the pilots who flew daring missions in the Berlin Airlift during 1948-49. He later served as a pilot for Pan American World Airways for nearly thirty years, rising to the rank of Captain. For many of those years, he lived in West Berlin and flew to various European cities, as well as traveling all over the world. In the final five years of his career, he became a Captain piloting 747s on Pan Am’s international routes. He was known among his colleagues not only for the meticulous precision of his flying skills but also for his generosity in mentoring younger pilots.
After his retirement in 1978, Mr. Hays moved to South Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, where he worked at restoring a grand old house and pursued his hobby of tinkering with cars and machinery. Then, in the late 1990s, he purchased a home adjacent to a small airstrip in Pipe Creek, Texas, where he resided until moving into the Plaza on the River senior living community in Kerrville early in 2007.
In 1943 he married Barbara Le Crick of Britton, Oklahoma; the couple was divorced in 1952. He is survived by two sons: Richard B. Hays of Durham, North Carolina, and Lloyd P. W. Hays of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and their wives, Judy and Mary; by four grandchildren: Christopher Hays, Sarah Hays, Kate Hays, and David Hays; by one great-grandchild, Madeleine Mei Hays; and by his sister Marguerite Woods of Bull Shoals, Arkansas, as well as by six nieces and nephews.
The funeral service will be held at 10:00 AM on January 29 at Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery, 13313 N. Kelly Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73131. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012 MRC 321, Washington, DC 20013-7012.
