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Note: H00002
Note: 1920 CENSUS: See his father, William D. M. Hays.
1930 CENSUS: See his mother, Margaret Dobbs Hays
David's father was born in Texas. He was an ordained Baptist minister and worked for many years, in the 1880's through the "teens" of the Century, as a missionary to the settlers in Choctaw and Cherokee Nations, Indian Territory, OK. He had four sons and two daughters from a first marriage. The marriage ended in divorce about 1912. Many years before, his father had performed the marriage ceremony for Dave's mother Margaret (Maggie) Dobbs and her first husband James Henry Nelson, the father of Dave's half-sisters Dixie and Joyce Nelson. Maggie and James divorced. William and Maggie were married, moved to California, and David was born in Ojai (Nordhoff), Ventura Co., CA where his father was pastoring a church. About 1918 the family moved to Castroville, Monterey County and then, in 1920, across the country to Zolfo Springs, Florida and a new church. His father died suddenly of a stroke in 1926 when Dave was 12, and he and his mother moved to Sacramento to be near Dixie and her husband John J. "Babe" Bottaro. In 1932 Maggie Hays moved on to Santa Cruz to live out her life next to her sister, Viola Downing and, evidently not wanting the responsibility of a teenager, left Dave with the Bottaros in Sacramento. He graduated from Sacramento High School and Sacramento Jr. College, played football and ran track while working many part-time jobs throughout the Depression. He was good looking, popular and full of energy and ambition. He learned the wholesale liquor business from his brother-in-law, Babe, but, for the most part, raised himself. The Bottaros were affluent people, kind and generous, but there was little in the way of a traditional home life. During college and after, he traveled the back roads and highways of Northern California as a salesman for the Argonaut Liquor Company and found the game of golf to which he was devoted. David married Joanne Fenner in 1938, and Barbara, David, Kathy and Bill were born between 1940 and 1950. He worked nights at Christy's Gun Works during the War and ran a bar and resturant during the day. In 1948 he and a partner founded Rainbow Wholesale Liquor Company which became quite successful. He was playing pro-am golf all over Northern California and enjoying his family and business success when, in 1952, an auto accident resulted in a severe spinal cord injury and paralysis from the neck down. Joanne cared for him day and night until his death 29 years later with never a break or a night away. Dave continued to go to work almost every day. Thanks to his tough mindedness and spirit and her loving, selfless care Dave lived to see his four children graduate from college, his grandchildren half grown, travel a bit, continue to build his business, and "out live some of his contemporaries who dropped dead on the golf course!" He had a tremendous spirit and zest for life and, like the quote from Timothy on his own father's headstone, he "fought the good fight."
1940 Sacramento, CA Telephone Directory: Hays, David G. 5103 San Francisco Blvd. - Capital 10230-J.
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