Elsie Hays

ELSIE M. FERRAN HAYS (92)

April 24, 1931 – July 1, 2023

Born the fifth child of Isidore Hipolito Ferran and Marianita Flossie Cortez at the ranch in Coyote, NM on April 24, 1931.  She grew up with a love and appreciation for her family, ranch life, culture and animals of all kinds.  After graduating from Santa Fe High School, she worked for the State of NM Vital Records.  On October 1, 1955, she married Howard Lewis “Luke” Hays, from northern Alabama, who was stationed in Moriarty, NM with the US Air Force.  She and Luke welcomed two daughters to the family: Pat and Sharon.  While living as an Air Force wife, stationed in Japan and California, she continued to work civil service jobs.  Upon Luke’s retirement from the Air Force, the family moved back to Santa Fe, where she worked for the National Park Service until her own retirement in 1992.  Elsie then joined Luke at the family ranch in Llaves, near her grandfather’s original homestead along the Gallina River, running cattle on various mountain properties in Llaves, Gallina, Abiquiu and Coyote.

Elsie had a lifelong love for her Chihuahuas, the ranch animals and her Hispanic culture.  In her later life she developed a passion for genealogy, tracing her family back to the 1500s, and supported the San Joaquin del Rio de Chama Land Grant.  She was a loving mother, but strict disciplinary who had strong expectations of her daughters – that they be strong, independent women capable of self-support and determination who respected their family, heritage and shared her appreciation for the land and animals.  Elsie passed from this world after dealing with multiple health issues, especially over the last year of her life.

Elsie was preceded in death by her parents, Isidore and Flossie, her brothers Julius Isidore Ferran and Gilbert Hipolito Ferran, and her sisters, Lorraine Flossie Padilla and Edna Rosina Ferran.  She is survived by her loving husband of 67 years, Luke; her beloved daughters, Pat and Sharon, and her grandson, Thomas Luke Moore, as well as her remaining brother, Robert Isidore Ferran (Viola Ferran) of White Rock, NM, her sister-in-law, Mary Ferran, widow of Julius, of Santa Fe, NM, and numerous nieces and nephews.

A Rosary will be recited at 10:30 AM Monday, July 31, 2023 at the Espanola Chapel of Rivera Family Funerals, 305 Calle Salazar.  Private interment services will follow at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.  Her family requests that Memorial Contributions be offered in her name to the Espanola Animal Shelter,108 Hamm Parkway, Espanola, NM 87532 or donate on line at www.espanolahumane.org