Sarah Hayden

Sarah Elizabeth Hayden, 91, passed away on Monday, December 12, 2022 at Green Hill Senior Living Center, West Orange, NJ. Sarah, who went by Sally, was born on January 24, 1931 in Mahaffey, PA, the third child of the late Jesse and S. Ruth (Weaver) Hutton. She grew to adulthood on a farm in rural western Pennsylvania in the midst of the Great Depression and World War II.

After graduating from high school, Sally attended the Indiana State Teachers College (forerunner of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania), graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business education in 1952. She entered the teaching profession with a yearning to travel and over the next several years taught in schools in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts and overseas at US Air Force bases in Morocco and England. Upon her return from overseas, she earned her master’s degree in guidance counseling from Pennsylvania State University. Because she loved the outdoors, was an enthusiastic camper and long-distance cyclist, she served as a camp counselor at many summer camps throughout the country during the 1950s.

In 1963, Sally married Lee L. Hayden III. His professional career in the US Army was a perfect fit for someone so fond of traveling and seeing the world. As a military spouse, Sally would live in Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Kansas, and West Berlin and Baumholder, Germany. Their daughter Deborah was born in 1968 and their son Lee was born in 1970 while his father was serving in Vietnam. Upon the end of her marriage in 1976, Sally and her children moved to Butler, PA where she would raise them while working as an elementary school and high school guidance counselor in the Butler Area School District. Sally gave her children a stable and happy childhood, delighting in taking them on trips to visit historically important places throughout the country, and encouraging them to aim high academically. She saw to it that they grew up in a Christian church, and she encouraged a sense of connectedness and emotional well-being by maintaining close ties with not only the siblings, nieces, and nephews in her own family, but also with the family of her ex-husband, as well as many family friends and neighbors.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Sally was still very adventurous, going on week-long backpacking trips with family members and even learning to golf when she was in her early 60s. Upon retiring from teaching in 1993, Sally had more time to travel, play Scrabble and card games with close friends, and enjoy her favorite hobby, flower gardening. In 2006, she moved to New Jersey to be near her children and grandchildren.

Throughout all of her life, Sally went out of her way to nurture friendships with people she met in locations throughout the country and the world in the various phases of her life. Many friendships from her early teaching days lasted her lifetime. She reliably demonstrated a sense of service and devotion to the sick and elderly by consistently taking the time to visit friends and relatives who were in hospitals and nursing facilities. Sally always had a tender heart for those who had been dealt a bad hand in life, which likely played a role in her choice of a profession.

Sally is survived by her daughter, Deborah Hayden Juergensen of Montclair, NJ; her son, Lee L. Hayden IV and wife Kathy-Jo of Randolph, NJ; her sister Ruthanne Atkinson of Elgin, IL; granddaughters Zoe, Kate, and Sabrina Juergensen; and grandsons William and Maxwell Hayden. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by two brothers, Joseph Hutton and Frank Hutton.

Visitation will be held at 9:00am on December 27, with a service at 10:30am at the Beardsley Funeral Home in Curwensville PA, followed by interment at the Mt. Zion Cemetery in Mahaffey PA. A luncheon will be held at the Mahaffey Campground in Mahaffey shortly thereafter. All friends and family members are welcome to attend.

As an alternative to flowers, donations can be made to Bethany Christian Services (www.bethany.org) which provides services for children in foster care.