Updated January 15th
Dr. Esper G. Hayes, the founder of the Ebony Society of Philatelic Events and Reflections, the organization for those who collect African-American subjects on stamps, passed away January 10th, in Pineville, N.C. She was 84.
“She will be greatly missed, and her memory will live on forever through the philatelic club that she founded,” the organization said in a statement.
The organization’s initials spell the founder’s name. It also means “to have hope.” It was organized in 1988.
Hayes founded ESPER after meeting track star Jesse Owens at a stamp show, where he noted that they two were the only African-Americans at the show that day. She promised him she would remedy that, although it happened at least a decade later.
She herself started as a collector of birds-on-stamps, she said in an October 2013 interview on YouTube. The entire interview is embedded here:
Hayes was born October 13, 1934, in Farmville, N.C., but moved to Norfolk, Va., at the age of 3. She graduated from that city’s Booker T. Washington High School and majored in religion at Shaw University. According to ESPER,
“After graduating from Shaw, she worked with youth organizations throughout the community helping young people to acquire the skills they needed to be successful. At the age of 33, she moved to New York where she became a social worker working for the City of New York and worked tirelessly to help children find stability in their lives. While managing two group homes for Lutheran Services Agency, she went back to school and earned her master’s degree and doctorate in social work from Yeshiva University. When she retired from Lutheran, she went on to teach Human Growth and Development and Social Policy at Seton Hall University. She received an honorary doctorate degree from Seton Hall University for her work with students and the inspiration she had become to students in pursuing a career in social work.”
A celebration of life service will be held on January 19, 2019, at 12 noon, at Grier Funeral Service Chapel, 115 John McCarroll Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28216. A repast will be held immediately after the service at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 3400 Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte, NC 28216.
