Lydia Young Hayes

Lydia Young Hayes (September 11, 1871 – February 8, 1943) was an American educator, and the first director of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind.

Lydia Young Hayes
Lydia Young Hayes, from a 1931 newspaper
BornSeptember 11, 1871
Hutchinson, Minnesota
DiedFebruary 8, 1943
Bemidji, Minnesota
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEducator, advocate for blind people
Known forDirector, New Jersey Commission for the Blind

Early life

Lydia Young Hayes was born in Hutchinson, Minnesota, the daughter of Charles W. Hayes, a farmer. She became blind as a girl, after a farm accident.[1] She graduated from the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston,[2] and trained as a teacher at the Kindergarten Normal School of Boston University.[3]

Career

Hayes taught blind children and adults as a young woman.[4] In 1904, she was chosen by the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind as one of the state's two home educators for blind adults. Helen Keller recommended Hayes to the governor of New Jersey, to lead that state's programs for blind residents.[3] Hayes became the first director of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind in 1910.[5][6][7]

During her tenure, New Jersey did not open a state school for blind children;[8] instead, it offered braille classes in public schools, and integrated classes including both blind and sighted students.[9] "It is more and more believed that the segregation of the blind is not wise either for youth or adult," she told a newspaper in 1913.[10] The state's home education program helped blind adults learn braille and vocational skills. [11][12]

Hayes testified at a 1937 Congressional hearing on "talking-book records" and equipment in New Jersey libraries: "The majority of the older blind do not read by touch and the talking book is the only way to hear the stories in which they are interested," she explained, adding "in many cases this provides their only recreation".[13] She retired from the director's role in 1937, but remained active with the commission as an educational consultant until 1942.[3]

Hayes was also executive secretary of the New Jersey State Association for the Blind,[14] and president of the Perkins Institution alumnae association.[15] She was a delegate and served on the hospitality committee at the World Conference on Work for the Blind, when it met in New York in 1931.[16] In 1936, she attended the funeral of Anne Sullivan Macy.[17]

Personal life and legacy

In retirement, Hayes moved to Bemidji, Minnesota. She lived with her nephew William Grant Hayes and his wife, Helen Schultz Hayes, who was deafblind and a former student of Lydia Y. Hayes.[18]

Hayes died in Bemidji in 1943, aged 71 years.[3][19] "She insisted that segregation of the blind was not the part of a proper teaching process", noted a colleague at the time of her death.[20] The Lydia Hayes Memorial Association formed in 1949, and ran the Lydia Hayes Home for the Aged Blind in Kenvil, New Jersey.[21] There was a Lydia Hayes Memorial Award given by the New Jersey State Commission for the Blind for "outstanding achievement by a blind person".[22][23][24]

References
  1. Roberts, Marion Mann (1997-05-01). "Lydia Young Hayes". Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815604181.
  2. Perkins School for the Blind (1890). Annual Report. p. 124.
  3. "Lydia Young Hayes – CBVI's First CEO". State of New Jersey, Department of Human Services, Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  4. Blind, Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the (1911). Annual Report of Perkins School for the Blind: 1909-1910. printed at Eaton Press. p. 20.
  5. "Work for the Blind". The Montclair Times. March 12, 1910. p. 1. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Blind Girl Guides 2,800 Sightless as State Chief". Daily News. March 8, 1931. p. 133. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Untitled news item". Passaic Daily News. March 14, 1910. p. 8. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Farrell, Gabriel (1956). The Story of Blindness. Harvard University Press. pp. 57–58. ISBN 9780674839403.
  9. "Give Yuletide Program at School No. 2 Today". The Morning Call. December 21, 1937. p. 18. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Mite-Boxes Under Ban". The Montclair Times. September 6, 1913. p. 6. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Blind Tutor of Blind to be Dinner Guest". Courier-Post. May 2, 1935. p. 22. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Home Industries Promoted by Blind Commission God-Send for Sightless". The Central New Jersey Home News. February 16, 1930. p. 12. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Statement of Lydia Y. Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, Board of Managers, New Jersey Commission for the Blind" Books for the Adult Blind: Hearing before the Committee on the Library, House of Representatives (United States Government Printing Office 1937): 75-76.
  14. "State Association for the Blind". Outlook for the Blind: 127. Winter 1917.
  15. Association, Perkins School for the Blind Alumni (1902). Proceedings at the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe: November 11, 1901. Wright & Potter printing Company. p. 8.
  16. World Conference on Work for the Blind. Inc American Printing House for the Blind. 1931.CS1 maint: others (link)
  17. "Funeral Service for Mrs. A. S. Macy". The New York Times. October 23, 1936. p. 23 – via ProQuest.
  18. "200 Attend Spring Conference Here". Bernardsville News. April 8, 1937. p. 9. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Miss Lydia Y. Hayes". The New York Times. February 10, 1943. p. 25 – via ProQuest.
  20. "Miss Hayes Dies; Leader of Blind Bedminster Born". The Courier-News. February 9, 1943. p. 10. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Home for Blind Plans Addition". The Record. December 26, 1963. p. 41. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Mrs. Tornquist, 71, Receives Blind Achievement Award". The Herald-News. October 3, 1953. p. 4. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "College is Goal of Colonia Woman, Even Though Blind". Fords Beacon. October 13, 1955. p. 1. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  24. "Local Woman Gets Award". The Millville Daily. July 17, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved October 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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