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	Franklin County, Kansas, USA

2009-07-03

2009-07-01

2009-06-30

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Former county commissioner dies at 89

By CLEON RICKEL, Herald Senior Writer

Former county commissioner Gardner Robert Hayden Sr., 89, Ottawa, died Sunday at his home.

While he was on the commission, Wal-Mart decided to build a mammoth distribution center on the outskirts of Ottawa. It’s one of the county’s largest employers.

“He was always very proud of that,” son Bob Hayden said.

Hayden was a good commissioner, Sheriff Craig Davis, who was in the sheriff’s department when Hayden was commissioner, said.

“He was always a fair man,” Davis said. “He really cared about the people of Franklin County.”

Besides his public service as a commission, Hayden served the community in other ways, serving as a district governor of the Lions and with the Trinity United Methodist Church, his son, Bob Hayden, said.

“He never retired,” he said. “He always kept active ... He knew a lot of people.

“He always had the gift of gab.”

Hayden, Preston Thompson, Lee Sheldon and Charles Mavity were among a small group of Lions who launched one of the group’s biggest fundraisers — the Lions’ funnel cakes.

When the Lions cast about for a fundraiser, Thompson suggested funnel cakes, something he had seen elsewhere.

“Nobody knew what funnel cakes were,” Thompson recalled.

On their first try, the group used electric skillets to make the doughy confection at Forest Park.

“We blew out all the electric circuits,” Thompson said. “The next time we tried those little camp stoves.

“That didn’t work either.”

Later, the group got a trailer specifically for making funnel cakes and an Ottawa tradition was born.

Hayden farmed and ranched and also worked for the U.S. Postal Service.

He and his wife, Cleda, had three children and seven grandchildren.

Hayden’s funeral will be 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, Ottawa. Burial will be at Evergreen Mound Cemetery northwest of Ottawa.

The family will receive visitors from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be made to Trinity United Methodist Church or Midland Hospice and sent in care to the Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, 325 S. Hickory, P.O. Box 14, Ottawa, KS 66067.

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