Arthur R. “Dickie” Hays 1912 - 1997

BLAKEY, HAYES, FREEMAN, JACKSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 2/25/2020 at 11:12:48

Sioux City Journal
29 August 197

Arthur R. “Dickie” Hays, 85, of Sioux City died Tuesday, August 26, 1997 at a Sioux City hospital following a lengthy illness.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mount Zion Baptist Church, with the Rev. Floyd B. Brown officiating. Burial will be in Logan Park Cemetery, with military rites conducted by the American Legion Monahan Post 64. Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. today, with the family present from 7 to 8 p.m. and a prayer service at 7 p.m. at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel.

Mr. Hayes was born January 16, 1912, in Salisbury, Missouri, the son of Ernest W. and Martha (Blakey) Hayes. He moved with his family to Yankton, South Dakota, where he graduated from high school. He moved to Sioux City in the late 1930s.

He married Willine Freeman. He married Lorine “Pee Wee” Jackson on May 5, 1956. He was employed as a “red Cap” at the Union Station, until entering the U.S. Army during World War II in 1943. His awards and decorations include the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal, the Atlantic Pacific Service Medal, the Phillippine Liberation Ribbon, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. He was discharged in December 1945.

In 1947, he was employed as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, retiring in 1975. He owned and operated the Top Clipper Barber Shop for many years, retiring in 1981.

He was a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, where he served as Deacon Emeritus since 1987. He served on the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where he was past president and a lifetime member, commissioner of the Sioux City Human Rights Commission and a member of the Hamilton Urban Renewal Project Area Committee.

Survivors include his wife; three daughters, Sharon Thompson of Los Angeles, California, Marva Utley and Dixie and her husband James Taylor, all of Chicago, Illinois; two sons and their wives, Richard E. and Saundra of Sioux City and Terrace D. and Kate of Cranberry, New Jersey; 14 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild.

He was preceded in death by three sisters and three brothers.

Pallbearers will be the Deacons of Mount Zion Baptist Church.