Jackie Hayes, 81, passed away on August 27, 2021. Josephine Ann Breen (aka Jackie) was born in Tipperary, Ireland, as World War II was beginning, and her family moved to London as Hitler's blitzkrieg was hitting its stride. As a small child, she and her two sisters were sent to a farm in Northern England as part of Operation Pied Piper, and many of her stories about her youth revolved around these experiences and about her adolescence growing up as a London teenager.



Jackie moved to America at age 19 with her parents and studied English at St Johns University in NY. There she met a recent emigre from Ireland at the Irishmen's Club in Manhattan: Patrick Hayes. They married in 1961 and had two children. Their early married years featured a hopscotch of westward moves, finally landing in Arizona in 1968 and divorcing in 1976.



Jackie had an enduring relationship with ASU, where she completed a BA in English, an MA in English, an MA in humanities/film, and a PhD in English w/a focus on film theory. Her academic interests included rhetoric and composition, the plays of Harold Pinter, poetry, deconstructionism, film theory and criticism, and feminist film theory.

She taught English at ASU, Mesa Community College, and Scottsdale Community College, with a teaching career that spanned from 1973 to 2009. She also acted as a hobby, working with Lubbock Dinner Theater, Tempe Little Theater, the ASU theater department, and Desert Foothills Theater.



In 1996, Jackie met John Brouhard (JB). She and JB enjoyed a close partnership until his death in January of 2021. During the same period, she became widely known as "Grandma Jackie" because of her work with children at Tempe Friends Meetinghouse and as a nanny. Jackie is survived by two children and five grandchildren. (Source: ASU Foundation)