Martha Duke Hayes Hunter was born on May 30, 1940, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to John Rutherford Hayes and Gertrude Maude “Doty” Hayes. Martha passed away on December 14, 2022. She spent her last days with family by her side. A graveside service will be held at Centuries Memorial Park on Monday, December 19, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Dr. Carl Rhoads will be officiating.
Martha’s life had challenges and great joys. After her parents died in a private plane crash when she was in the 3rd grade at South Highlands Elementary School, she and her older brother John Hayes went to live with her loving aunt and uncle, Cecil Mae and Leslie Moseley, who raised them as their own. Leslie and Cecil Mae did a good job -- Martha graduated from Byrd High School in 1958 and received a Bachelor of Arts from Sophie Newcomb College in 1962 and her brother graduated with the first graduating class of the Air Force Academy. Martha married Ted Anthony Hunter on July 13, 1963, and after teaching for a few years, focused her time on raising their two boys, John Hayes Hunter and James Harrol Hunter. Martha was tough from the beginning. Her favorite childhood swimming hole was also the home of Bobo the one-eyed alligator. She spent a week snowed in at a high altitude elk camp with her husband. Martha taught her boys to water ski in northern Toledo Bend where she would tread water alone after they successfully skied away. And she patiently hunted with her boys when they were too young to go alone. Martha loved to play tennis and she played bridge with her close friends up until the end of her life. Martha survived three different cancers and never complained or let the numerous surgeries or treatments slow her down. She was joyously cancer-free for the last fifteen-plus years of her life. Martha was a wonderful and much-loved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She was gracious and compassionate and a strong friend and mother.
Martha was a member of First United Methodist Church for over fifty years and was a founding member of the Seekers Sunday School Class. She was preceded in death by her parents John Rutherford Hayes and Gertrude Maude Hayes, aunt and uncle Cecil Mae (“Mamaw”) and Leslie (“Papaw”) Moseley, and her brother John Hayes. She is survived by Ted, her loving husband of fifty-nine years, son John Hayes Hunter and wife Jeanna of Grand Cane, Louisiana, son James Harrol Hunter and wife Catherine of Shreveport, grandchildren Leslie Elizabeth Hunter, John Ashton Hunter, and Lauren Hayes Hunter, and cousins Brent Moseley of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and Jim Johnston and wife Susan of Shreveport, Louisiana.
