Pamula Jean (Shaw) Hays

Inurnment services for Pamula Hays will be held on Saturday, August 31st, at 10:00 AM at Bomar Point Cemetery in Wilson, OK, and will be open to the community. The family invites all who wish to honor Pam’s legacy to join them for a Celebration of Life at 2:00 PM, following the inurnment service, at Abundant Life Church, 421 L Street, Ardmore, OK. Services will be led by Pastor Michael Caraway. Services are under the care and direction of Alexander Gray Funeral Home in Wilson. 

Many of us count our Christmas gifts as special, but none was ever as special as Pamula Jean Hays (née Shaw), who became a gift to her family on December 25, 1956, in Wilson, Oklahoma. Pam was truly a gift that kept on giving, as evidenced by a life dedicated to her family in Ardmore, Oklahoma, until her passing on August 25, 2024, at the age of sixty-seven. 

Pam married the love of her life, Mark Hays, on July 26, 1974. Pam and Mark were blessed to spend nearly fifty years together on Earth, and there is no doubt that Mark was first in line to greet his bride as she crossed into Heaven. Pam’s life was made complete on April 14, 1985, when her son, Jeremiah, was born. The fiercest defender of her siblings and friends growing up (something that continued her entire life), she finally had a family of her own to protect and nurture. Not only did she take her job seriously, but she executed it with beauty and grace–and a somewhat serious inability to tell that baby boy “no.” After all, she’d had years of practice saying “yes” by the time Jeremiah was born, first spoiling her baby brother, Shawn, and then her nephew, Scott. 

While Jeremiah may be Pam’s only child on paper, she was a mother to everyone who knew her. If someone needed somewhere to go, she would provide a safe place to land; and even when people did have somewhere to go, they still seemed to want to be at Pam and Mark’s. Pam loved everyone she came across equally, never judging or considering whether that person deserved her time or efforts. For so many people, Pam felt a lot like home.

Pam loved to be with people. Some of her best days were spent alongside her adoring husband, friends, and family. The rest of her best days were spent snuggled up to her dog, Butter, who didn’t really like anyone, but even he couldn’t help but love Pam. 

Pam joins many loved ones who undoubtedly embrace her spirit with joy now: father, Eddie Shaw, and his wife, Tressie; her beloved husband, Mark Hays; brother, Steven Shaw; sister, Renee Miller; and nephews Alan Shaw and Chasen Tucker. 

Her legacy and light live on in the family she adored more than anything: son Jeremiah (Noel) Hays, and grandchildren, Isabella and Benji Hays; son Scott (Rebekah) Hays, and grandchildren, Myles, Zeppelin, and Romee Hays; siblings David (Kelly) Shaw, George (Bridget) Shaw, Thurman Hammons, Shawn (Haverdy) Avant, Glenna (Larry) Smith, Brenda Higgins, Linda (John) Melton, Billy Shaw, Darla (Mike) Goodson, and Ron Hawkins Jr.; mother Sue Hawkins—who still thanks God for the precious gift of her daughter, Pam—and husband Ron Hawkins. The blessing of Pam’s life also lives on in countless brothers- and sisters-in-law, cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends.