Florence Colburn Hayes

1928 - 2016

Hayes, Florence Colburn

Florence Colburn Hayes, known as Lolly, passed away in her sleep on November 20, 2016, in Philadelphia, after a brief illness. Lolly was born August 8, 1928, and grew up in Fresno, CA, where her father was a professor of modern languages. She graduated from Pomona College, where she met Donald Hayes, whom she married in 1950. They moved to Ithaca, NY in 1963 with their five children, Peggy, Bruce, Leslie, Louise, and Judy, when Don got a job as a sociology professor at Cornell University. As her children grew older, Lolly worked for a time as a computer programmer, and in 1970 obtained a masters degree in Library Science from Syracuse University. She worked for decades as a librarian at Olin Library at Cornell. She was an expert at cataloguing serials from all over the world, typically creating the authoritative record for each serial. Lolly and Don loved independent travel. In 1969, they took their five children (ages 6 to 15) on a European tour for six weeks in a small camper van. This was the first of dozens of trips to Europe, including sabbatical terms in England in 1971, 1977, and 1984. For a while after they retired, Lolly and Don traveled overseas six times a year, exploring antiquities and enjoying the theatre in London, alternating months with travel within the United States. Trips around the globe were typically only lightly planned, with itineraries and hotels arranged en route. Lolly also loved primitive camping at Forked Lake in the Adirondacks, where she was an expert cook on a Coleman stove. She was an avid fan of Cornell hockey. She loved plays, both as audience member and actor. She participated in numerous book groups, and was a stalwart of the classes at her retirement community in Philadelphia. She was an unapologetic Anglophile. A few years after Don died in 2006 (after 56 years of marriage), Lolly moved to Cathedral Village in Philadelphia to be near her daughters Leslie and Louise. She kept her house in Ithaca as a family gathering spot and loved to return there. In additional in to her five children, she is survived by sons-in-law Dick Spellman, Norman Gross, and Jonathan Dawe, daughter-in-law Patricia Keating, eight grandchildren, her brother David Colburn, his wife Catherine, and many nieces and nephews.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to the Adirondack Council, P.O. Box D-2, Elizabethtown, NY 12932.