Life Story for James Edward Hays

James Hays-56 years,passed on to the other side from complications of kidney failure. Wednesday March 8,2017. He was living in Shady Cove at the time but had lived in Arizona,Oregon and Alaska.He was an independent and determined man who did things his own way and if you were a friend he was trustworthy and loyal and he would do whatever he could to help you. He graduated from Crater High School in 1978 and then he did a little restaurant work, went to Arizona and did some roofing after about 1 year he came back to Oregon and worked at Pepsi for a while until he went to Kodiak,Alaska approximately 1985 and worked in Commercial crabbing and fishing industry for many years with many seasons crabbing on the Bering Sea, sometimes within just a few miles of Russia and long lining for Halibut and Cod out of Kodiak Island.Retiring from fishing due to a broken ankle/leg approx.1990.He lived with his girlfriend Linda Jackson for many years separating around 1996 and then in 1997 at the age of forty met April Signa and they married in 2000. After he quit fishing he studied and received a contractor license for drywall and started Hays Drywall which started with residential homes doing many custom homes in the local area and then working up to commercial contracts he went on to work with Acme West as a sub-contractor and started giving out commercial bids and helped build 5 of the new senior living complexes (specializing in dropped ceilings)here in the valley as well as ,hospitals and some government contracts around Medford,Grants Pass and Bend.During the crash of 2009 things got slow with work and he had to make some changes.Around 2011 he went to Truck Driving school and got his CDL .he started driving a semi from Grants Pass to Seattle on his regular route,he hated it and didn't last quite a year doing that.Then he started driving a water truck fighting forest fires during the fire season and loved doing that he did that until he was not able to any longer because of dialysis.In the early 2000's he spent approx. 3 years in his off time building his personal log home off Dead Indian Rd.which was a custom built 2 story with top of the line cabinets,granite counter tops with chipped faces,custom shower stalls,wood flooring,full deck no expense was spared.We used to call it "the lodge".He loved football especially his Raiders and would make snacks or something special to watch the game. He also loved hunting and fishing even if it was just scouting for the next thing to hunt and studied the regulations religiously every new season to find new areas to hunt or fish and what was available at different times of the year.He also traveled a bit and was into scuba diving when he was younger and traveled to Hawaii,Mexico,and The Bahamas at different times to pursue that experience.He flew to Russia to see what that was about and stayed for about two weeks he would tell about the different experiences in Russia and at the different airports on the way there.His most recent road trip was to Minot ,N.Dakota to check out work driving a water truck for the pipeline.He said it was way to cold and would suck for his dog at the time.The last 2 years his kidneys started getting the best of him and he had to start dialysis in 2016.He was making great headway though and working very hard to get on the transplant list going through all the testing and labs with just one more little thing to accomplish for that to be done.He put up a good fight and will be missed deeply.He is survived by his mother Carolyn,step father Charlie Silvey,his brother Bob and JoAnne his sister-in-law and his sister Joanne.His favorite niece Briana.His favorite nephew Nathan,his wife Allison and their children Brayden,Kaleb and Ariah as well as the many,many, many Uncles,Aunts and Cousins he loved each and everyone of you guys and girls. Please feel free to add comments or photos you may have.

Obituary for James Edward Hays

Life Story for James Edward Hays