David Clark Hayden

A Celebration of Life will be held on August 6, 2022, from 10 am to Noon at the Vermilionville performance center for David Clark Hayden who died peacefully at home on July 19, 2022, at the age of 69. The family asks, in lieu of flowers, to please consider donating to Friends of the Lafayette Animal Shelter (FLASh) at www.flashlafayette.org.

David was born on April 27, 1953, in Lexington, Kentucky. He was the youngest to two older sisters and never missed an opportunity to be the quintessential annoying baby brother. This led to a lifetime of practical jokes and shenanigans that are now the stuff of legend at family gatherings. When he wasn't up to no good, David's parents helped him foster an interest in aviation and space. After high school, he attended A & P school in Somerset, Kentucky, where he graduated as a helicopter mechanic. With his newly acquired skills, he soon realized there were very few helicopters in Kentucky and decided to head toward the Gulf of Mexico. He built a home in Abbeville, LA where he resided for more than forty years. His tinkering was not limited to helicopters. He also held a lifelong interest in British cars. As a longtime member of the New Orleans British Motoring Club, he often traveled to various car shows and rallies frequently bringing home multiple awards. He even went so far as to hold a funkana of his own for several years. The highlight was the seesaw. Cars rolled up one side and tried to perfectly balance to win points. Almost no one succeeded which pleased him to no end.

He was rarely fulfilled unless he had a project going. After a day at work, he would come home to a car restoration or a construction build. Never one to let go of something once acquired, he found himself in constant need of more space. After outgrowing a shop with a two-car garage, he built an aircraft hangar. After outgrowing the hangar, he built a ten-car garage. At the height of his collection, he owned ten British sports cars, two tractors, a forklift, a trailer, a beat-up Suburban, and a Mazda Miata. His children were both thankful he always had a spare car to borrow, and terrified of all the things they would have to get rid of when he passed away.

When he finally settled in for the evening after his time in the shop, he was most happy with a dog in his lap. Having grown up as a staunch cat person, his love of dogs came on swiftly and abruptly. He loved time with his "snacking partner" and had a hard time sleeping without a set of paws in his back. Never one to tolerate disobedience in his children, he inexplicably adored an incessant barker who never heard a command she obeyed and thoroughly lived up to her name, Ms. Bee Havin. He was also the dogfather of Addy Belle, who asked us to note that she is nothing like her sister, and will deeply miss the shared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every morning.

While an avid collector of car parts, aircraft parts, and various types of machinery, one of his most vast collections was that of Dad jokes. He loved a good Dad joke. He loved a bad Dad joke. He opened most conversations with the latter much to the chagrin of his wife and children. But they groaned their way through each and every one with love. He was always up for a laugh or a good time. Never one to simply hand out a Christmas gift, he often spent weeks planning elaborate scavenger hunts only to have them end in an even more elaborate wrapping job. He once wrapped his children's presents in hundreds of layers of industrial shrink wrap and gave them each a pair of round-tip kindergarten scissors to aid in opening the gift. That was a long Christmas. His children tried to retaliate and failed miserably as he was the self-proclaimed "Smartest Man in the Whole Wide World" and thwarted their attempts to trip him up at every turn. He was a man of eclectic musical taste, incredible intelligence, a work ethic that would topple most men half his age, a constant support, a father figure to his own and many others, and a sheer force of nature. He would not look kindly on all this nonsense and fluff and would definitely say "Just tell them I died and be done with it!" To that end we conclude with:

He is survived by his wife, Menda Ballard Hayden, his daughter Cara Hayden Bacque (Stew), his daughter Rachel Patton Hayden (Brit), and his son Ian Lucus Ballard. He is also survived by his sisters JoEllen Hayden (George) and Catherine Bishop (Charles), two grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his son, Shaun Grimes Hayden, and his parents Joseph and Eleanor Hayden.

A Celebration of Life will be held on August 6th from 10 am to Noon at the performance center at Vermilionville at 300 Fisher Road in Lafayette, LA 70508. Guests are free to share their favorite Dad joke, memory, story, or reading.