Alice D. Hayes Fund

Born in Augusta, ME, Alice D. Hayes was stationed throughout the country during her 30-year career in the US Navy. According to Rebecca Book, whose late mother attended Wheelock College with Miss Hayes in the early 1930s, Miss Hayes worked as a “Rosie the Riveter” at a base in Hawaii during World War II and later served as social secretary to a rear admiral in Virginia. Among her numerous other posts, she was stationed at Rhode Island’s Naval Air Station Quonset Point during the 1960s.

Of that time, Mrs. Book recalls, “She let me drive her car when I was just learning to drive. She always named her cars. That one was Black Beauty.”

She remembers, too, times her family spent summer vacations at the Hayes’ summer house on Lake Cobbosseecontee near Augusta. “She had a lot of happy memories there,” Mrs. Book explains.

Having never married, Miss Hayes, who died in May 2007 at age 100, left no direct descendents. At the time of her death, her nearest relative was Arthur Dawson, a first cousin, twice removed. “She was more like a great aunt,” he explains of the woman he refers to as “very independent…with a very independent life. “She had a good sense of humor and was really just amazing. She lived in a third story walk-up until she was 92,” he shares.

Her Navy service, from 1942 to 1972, resulted in numerous commendations which, according to her Providence Journal obituary, included the American Theatre, WWII Victory, Asiatic-Pacific, National Defense Service, and seven Good Conduct Medals.

“I think she made a good life for herself,” Mr. Dawson notes, with Mrs. Book recalling her love of the theatre, knitting, cats, and reading. “She had a very active mind and was fiercely independent. She didn’t need a man to make life complete for her. She was very capable…And she loved Rhode Island.”

It is her love for Rhode Island which will forever be honored through this unrestricted fund.

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