Margaret Blair Hayes, known to everyone as Blair, passed in the early morning hours of October 24, 2022, at Friends Nursing Home in Sandy Spring, Maryland.
Blair was born in Washington, DC, at Garfield Memorial Hospital on March 26, 1943, to parents Thomas E. Hayes Jr. and Kathryn Taylor Hayes. She grew up in Potomac, Maryland, where she attended Potomac Elementary School, Western Junior High School, and Walter Johnson High School. The middle child between Thomas (Tom) E. Hayes III and Kathryn (Katie) Taylor Hayes, Blair had an idyllic childhood, swimming on the Congressional Country Club Swim team and riding horses. Blair attended University of Illinois, the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, and Carnegie Tech, where she graduated with a degree in fine art. Blair was a skilled painter and sculptor.
She was an avid traveler in her youth, visiting Russia, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, and Mexico. Blair won a writing contest and was invited to a garden party in England where she was able to meet Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 1961.
An independent woman, Blair moved to Highland, Maryland, around 1988, where she lived until her passing. She had a lifelong love of animals and cared for many during her life, including two Dachshunds, two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, three horses, three ponies, and several feral cats.
Perhaps the only things Blair enjoyed as much as her animals were spending time in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, and Fenwick Island, Delaware. Blair went to Isla Mujeres for 36 years, often two or three times per year with her mother (before her passing) and sister Katie, where she visited with beloved friends and families. When relaxing in Fenwick Island, her favorite activities included eating crabs, drinking margaritas (on the rocks, with salt), and beating Katie at Scrabble.
Blair supported horse rescue efforts and served for 40 years on the Montgomery General Hospital Women’s Board, for which she was very involved in the annual picnic and plant sale.
She is survived by her sister, Katie Hayes, in Laytonsville, Maryland; nephew Thomas (Tim) Hayes, his wife Michelle Wee, and their children Maya and Anna Hayes in Alexandria, Virginia; and her niece Elizabeth (Liz) Hayes, her husband Jon Paul Fiening, and their children Julia and Jack Fiening in North Bethesda, Maryland.
We knew her as an artist, gardener, Irish tea and margarita drinker, animal lover, and amateur humorist, and we will miss her.
Plans are under way for a small family gathering to celebrate Blair and share some of our favorite stories. Please check back again later for details.
In lieu of flowers, the family would like to honor Blair through donations to World Central Kitchen, http://wck.org/ which provides meals on the frontlines in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.
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