Margaret
Hayes

Margaret Ellen Hayes, 85, of Bel Air, passed away peacefully at home on July 2, 2026, surrounded by her family. Born March 8, 1941, in Havre de Grace, Maryland, Margaret taught third grade at Lincoln Elementary for thirty-one years, where generations of students knew her for reading aloud every afternoon, rain or shine. She married Thomas Hayes in 1963; together they raised three children in the house on Walnut Street where she lived to her last day. Margaret kept the best tomato garden on the block, never missed a grandchild's recital, and wrote letters — real letters, in looping cursive — long after everyone else had stopped. She is survived by her children Susan, David, and Carol; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by Thomas, her husband of fifty-two years. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be directed to the Harford County Public Library, where Margaret volunteered every Tuesday for twenty years.