Wayne Hays

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox officeholder Wayne Levere Hays (May 13, 1911 – February 10, 1989) was an American World War II veteran and politician who served 14 terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1949 to 1976. A Democrat, he resigned from Congress after a much-publicized sex scandal.

Early years

Hays was born in Bannock, Ohio, the son of Bertha Taylor and Walter L. Hays.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He graduated from Ohio State University<ref name=nyt>Template:Cite web</ref> in 1933. He served as mayor of Flushing, Ohio, from 1939 to 1945 and simultaneously served in the Ohio state senate in 1941 and 1942. Starting in 1945 he served a four-year term as Commissioner of Belmont County. He was a member of the Army Officers' Reserve Corps from 1933 until called to active duty as a second lieutenant on December 8, 1941, with a medical discharge in August 1942.

Politics

Hays was first elected as a Democrat to the 81st Congress in 1948,<ref name=nyt/> and was subsequently elected to thirteen succeeding Congresses. He was chairman of the powerful Committee on House Administration.<ref name=nyt/>

Hays received 5 votes for President at the 1972 Democratic National Convention without campaigning for the office. In 1976, Hays ran for the party's nomination for President as a favorite son candidate in the Ohio primary.<ref name=ray>Template:Cite news</ref>

Hays's strong rule of the House Administration Committee extended to even the smallest items. In the mid-1970s, lawmakers avoided crossing Hays for fear that he would shut off the air conditioning in their offices.<ref name=time1>June 7, 1976 Time</ref>

File:Wayne Hays on April 5, 1973, face detail, from- CAC CC 001 18 10 0000 0939 (cropped).jpg

Wayne Hays on April 5, 1973

Sex scandal

In May 1976, the Washington Post broke the story quoting Elizabeth Ray, Hays' former secretary, saying that Hays hired her on his staff, and later gave her a raise as staff of the House Administration Committee for two years, to serve as his mistress. Hays had divorced his wife of 38 years just months prior, and married his veteran Ohio office secretary, Patricia Peak, five weeks before the scandal broke.<ref name=ray/> Ostensibly a secretary, Ray admitted: "I can't type. I can't file. I can't even answer the phone." She even "let a reporter listen in as the Ohio congressman told her on the phone that his recent marriage (to another former secretary) would not affect their arrangement."<ref>may 1986 The Washington Monthly</ref>

Time Magazine reported, "Liz chose to tell her story after Hays decided to marry Pat Peak and did not invite her. 'I was good enough to be his mistress for two years but not good enough to be invited to his wedding,' she pouted." Three days later, Hays admitted to most of the allegations on the House floor, denying only "that Miss Ray's federal salary was awarded solely for sexual services. She was not, insisted Hays, 'hired to be my mistress.'"<ref name=time1/> He resigned as chairman of the Committee on House Administration on June 18, 1976, and then resigned from Congress on September 1, 1976.<ref name=nyt/>

Marion L. Clark, a Washington Post editor, who was a member of team that reported the sex scandal, was killed September 4, 1977, when she reportedly walked into a moving small private airplane propeller at the airfield of Iosco County Airport, East Tawas, Michigan.<ref>Washington Post Editor Is Killed By Whirring Propeller Blades - The New York Times</ref>

Personal life

Hays and his first wife had a daughter, Martha Brigitta.

Later years

After leaving office, Hays returned to Red Gate Farm, his 300-acre property in Belmont, Ohio, where he bred Angus cattle and Tennessee Walking Horses.<ref name=nyt/> Hays served one term, from 1979 to 1981, as member of the Ohio House of Representatives.<ref name=nyt/> In the 1978 Democratic Primary, he defeated Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., a future Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Hays was defeated for re-election by future Congressman Bob Ney.

Death

Hays died at Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 10, 1989, at the age of 77, after suffering a heart attack at his home.<ref name=nyt /><ref name=deseret>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of United States representatives from Ohio
• List of federal political scandals in the United States
• List of federal political sex scandals in the United States

External links

• Template:CongBio