THIS MONTH'S FEATURED HISTORY PROJECT
INTERVIEW:
Ester Mae (Kitty) Hicks Hayes
Elementary Teacher
Interview Feb 12, 1999

    History was admittedly not one of Ester Mae Hicks Hayes favorite subjects. In spite of that it’s her history that enables us to piece together the chapters of her fascinating life. Ester (she dropped Mae, thinking it too country), adopted the knick name ‘Kitty’ in college, which stayed with her through college and beyond. Her parents were Ella Evans Hicks and Emmanuel Hicks. They brought her into the world in 1928 in Brighton, a twin city of Beaver Falls Pennsylvania, just 50 miles outside of Pittsburgh,. It was Herbert Hoover’s time in the Presidency as Wall Street experienced the worst financial collapse ever, ushering in the Great Depression and making possible Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four terms in office beginning in 1932.
     Her mother, whose own mother Ester Evans, (Kitty’s grandmother), was originally from Henderson, North Carolina, and one of eight children all of whom were taught at home by their father. Ella was the first person in the family to go to college at Knoxville, in Knoxville TN. There she met Kitty’s father when they were students. He’d originally come from Alabama. Kitty’s mother taught for a year while Kitty’s father went to the Seminary in Pennsylvania, to study, eventually becoming an ordained minister. When they were wed, they started their family in Pennsylvania, where Kitty’s two oldest sister’s were born. Kitty became the next of the four girls born there before the family then moved to Camden, N.J.    Her parents were very family oriented. Those were the worst years of the Depression. Although no one was hiring married women teachers during those years., the kids never felt deprived. Even though her mother had been a teacher, her sisters never thought about becoming teachers. Her oldest sister wanted to become a journalist. She was sent to Japan and Guam during the War to help set up the USO. After World War II she decided to become a teacher in Philadelphia. All her sisters went to Knoxville College. Mary went next, Kitty the following year. Miriam started the year Kitty graduated. Miriam went for one year but wanted to major in Drama until she learned they had no such program there, so she transferred to West Virginia State. Mary and Miriam both taught Spanish in Philadelphia High School and then went to Puerto Rico as ESL Exchange teachers.
    Growing up with a strict, loving minister father, Kitty wasn’t allowed to date until she was eighteen years old. “Boys and books don’t mix”, she was told. Movies weren’t allowed until she was twelve and were even then, selected by parents who accompanied her. The kids were also accompanied by their parents to museums and family picnics. The Camden schools at that time were segregated and she was called “colored.” The Junior High School and High School were only beginning to experience integration. She graduated from her high school in 1945, the same year WWII ended. During her senior year she won the Public Speaking Contest. That was a big deal.
      When she was a little girl under twelve, she took turns performing the many chores she and her sisters shared, like washing and drying fishes, making beds, and scrubbing the front porch. She liked to hold her father’s hand, describing herself as a “Daddy’s girl”. Her first paying job was working for a neighbor, Mrs. Katz, who lived across the street and for whom she did house work, like scrubbing the kitchen floor. She and everybody else in Camden, at one time or another, worked in the Campbell Soup factory Canning Division, she for six or seven years. Summers were tomato season. She remembers making $ .55.5 per hour. Everyone then working for the company was required to be at least sixteen years of age.