Birth: Sept. 13, 1926Profession: Jul. 29, 1959Death: Nov. 8, 2010
Hayes - Margaret Therese, RSCJ, M.D.,F.A.P.A., died November 8, 2010. Affectionately known as “Doc Hayes,” she will be missed by all who knew her.
Born September 13, 1926 to James Joseph Hayes, M.D and Grace Hanlon Hayes, Dr. Hayes received her M.D. from New York University School of Medicine in 1949. In 1951, she resigned a residency in Pediatrics to follow a call to religious life and entered the Society of the Sacred Heart at Kenwood in Albany, New York in 1951. Dr. Hayes made her final profession as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in Rome on July 29, 1959.
After completing a residency in psychiatry at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York in 1971 and receiving her Board Certification, Dr. Hayes served as a full time staff psychiatrist and associate attending in psychiatry at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in Harrison, New York until her retirement. In 1980 she was appointed a lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. In addition, Dr. Hayes was a member of the counseling staff at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, and an associate attending psychiatrist at Cabrini Medical Center, New York; she also served as a psychiatric consultant to the Archdioceses of New York and Brooklyn and to the Mary Manning Walsh Home in New York. In her later years, she also served as a consultant on the Marriage Tribunal for the Archdiocese of New York.
During her residency in psychiatry at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York, Sister Hayes worked at a men’s shelter in the Bowery. Writing at the time of her 25th Jubilee, she said of that experience: “I worked there every week at night with the poorest and neediest of Christ’s people. The experience gave me a real love for the poor and insight into the problems of this disadvantaged society, so often maligned and misunderstood. Another very different ministry, which has been formative for me, was my work in the Infirmary at Kenwood for many years. There I saw RSCJ ‘Called to show forth the love of God made man,’ accepting illness graciously, bearing their frustrations, and facing incapacities and death with faith, love and dignity. I saw our elderly sisters, by their wisdom and their tenderness, bear witness to God’s faithfulness and the joy of belonging to Him.”
Sister Hayes was predeceased by her sister, Mary Ann Hayes, M.D. She is survived by a niece, Cynthia Smyth, M.D. and nephew James Hayes, as well as by her sisters in the Society of the Sacred Heart. Services: Saturday, November 20, 2010 at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, 1177 King Street, Greenwich, CT 06830. Visitation at 2:30 PM followed by Mass of the Resurrection at 4 PM. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: The Society of the Sacred Heart, 4120 Forest Park Ave., St. Louis, MO 63108 or to Sprout Creek Farm, 34 Lauer Rd., Poughkeepsie, NY 12603.