Tiny Hayes

Also known as Alice Delores Hayes, Lou Hayes, and George Hayes. Listed most prevalently as Tiny Hayes in multiple federal census records, local newspapers, social security number registry, and other sources. Born May 10, 1914; Died March 21, 1991.

Thanks to a lack of acceptance at the time we don't know if Tiny was a butch lesbian, a trans man, or a transmasculine nonbinary person, so this biography will use "they/them" pronouns for Tiny. Whatever identity label Tiny might have chosen to use in describing themselves, they are a queer elder worth remembering.

While Tiny's life is mostly documented in federal census records and newspaper social pages, the most dramatically documented part of their life was when they were 21 years old and married Margaret Lavinia Fowler (either 14 or 17 years old at the time, depending on the source) in July of 1935 under the name of George Hayes. While their marriage was originally secret from even the bride's parents, it quickly expanded into a scandal covered in newspapers from coast to coast. Margaret and George are reported to have explored their options of remaining married, but ended up following legal advice to officially annul the marriage so that it could be cleared from legal records for their safety. During the time of their marriage, George was threatened with jail time for wearing pants by a local sheriff and ended up buying dresses and feminine clothing for the first time in many years to satisfy local law enforcement as well as their employers so they could attend a dance with Margaret. It is reported that they remained very close and left the courtroom together holding hands. Both Margaret and George were evasive when asked for further details about their relationship by authorities and media personnel.

After the media blitz, public information about Tiny is much more subtle. They returned to their hometown of Picher, Oklahoma, where they eventually managed the Old Sample Shoe Store. They occasionally were noted to be visiting family or friends in other states, often without gendered terms but once in passing described them as a "daughter" in their family. They served as a pallbearer at the funeral of a dear friend. They never married again or had a publicly recognized romantic relationship with anyone. And after they passed away in 1991, there were two different versions of their obituary, one brief version that merely noted them as a "retired shoe salesman" with no other gendered information or pronoun usage, and a longer version that didn't include many details beyond birth or death dates which used she/her pronouns for Tiny.