The Perry Golf and Country Club will host their 2nd annual Memorial Golf Tournament July 5. Honored this year will be the late Genevieve Hayes, a long-time member and a driving force for the establishment of the swimming pool at the club.
“Gen was a very important lady for our golf and country club,” Memorial Selection Committee chairperson Bob Gilroy said. “We wanted to honor a lady this year and Gen was the clear choice. We can never thank her enough for her generosity and passion for our swimming pool. She was a wonderful lady.”
Mrs. Hayes passed away June 20, 2014. Born Genevieve Jimmy on November 5, 1926 in Webb, Iowa, she grew up on the family farm in Churdan. She played the role of a real “Rosie the Riveter” during her high school summers by joining her sisters and working at a defense plant in Chicago.
After graduating from Churdan High School, she worked for Allied Insurance Company in Des Moines. In 1947 she was married to Robert Hayes, becoming a home-maker and mother to three children. An active volunteer who served on the PTA, she was a dedicated Sunday School teacher and member of her church choir. She also helped with beautification efforts in Perry and was a valued contributor to Perry’s Sentimental Journeys.
Hayes was an avid golfers and enjoyed time with her children and grandchildren at the club’s pool. She generously donated money for the construction of a new pool at the club and was instrumental in seeing that funds were raised to build it. For many years afterward she supported the needed upkeep of the pool while remaining a dedicated member of the club. Without her vision, generosity and diligence it is doubtful the pool would have ever been built or survived.
The Memorial is an event for amateur men golfers. Frank Chiodo of Des Moines won the first playing of the event, firing a 68 and following it up in the Championship Nine with a 38 to shoot a two-under par total of 106.
Golfers interested in playing in the Memorial (a flighted tourney) should contact the PGCC clubhouse at 465-3852. Several members of the Hayes family will be in attendance at the event.
