My Mother was born February 12, 1952 to Gus and Ernestine Wright Hatchett. She is the youngest of her father’s six children and the only child of her mother. She graduated from W.F. Branch High in 1970 and attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. After she married my Dad, Wayman Mays, she moved to Little Rock and started a family. A few years later they moved back to their hometown of Newport, Arkansas. There she started working for the local newspaper, the Newport Daily Independent. She started out as a reporter and worked her way up to the editor of the newspaper.

My mother is definitely our family’s social butterfly. She has never met a stranger. My mother is where I got my love of reading from. She always had a book in her hand. She always said that reading was her way of traveling the world. My mother was the first person to help me when I started my family history research. During the journey she’s the only one I have been able to talk into going to the library with me, and for that I will always be thankful.