Ted & Betty Hayhow

    No man could put a pen to paper like the late E.C. "Ted" Hayhow. Ted and Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor both worked at the Pontiac Daily Press, where he advanced from reporter to the post of city editor. A native of Kansas, Betty had been the paper’s city recreation director. They married and had three children, two of whom survived to adulthood.

    Upon the death of longtime newspaper editor Harvey J. Burgess in 1946, Ted (right) came to Hillsdale from Holly, Mich., to take the reins of the Hillsdale Daily News.  He had attended Michigan State University and had also been press secretary to Gov. Harry Kelley during Kelley's first term.

    Son David soon followed, enrolling in Hillsdale High School for the second semester in early 1947. Wife Betty and daughter Sue followed that summer.  Never one to rest, Betty immediately went to work as the newspaper's photographer.   David was one of the students featured in the Life magazine article on the Hillsdale High School Class of 1949. 

    Ted Hayhow served as publisher for the Hillsdale Daily News for 25 years, during which time he strongly endorsed and supported the sports department at the college. He was also named a new trustee to the Hillsdale College Board of Directors. The annual Hillsdale College football banquet, beginning in 1953, was sponsored yearly by the Hillsdale Daily News, under Hayhow's supervision. He also helped organize the original "Touchdowners" organization at the college and was its first president. In 1963, Hayhow was honored with an honorary doctorate in journalism from Hillsdale College. Ted had also served as president of the Michigan Press Association and the Michigan Associated Press Editorial Association.                                                                                                                                                                            

       Long active in state and local issues, Hayhow served in 1961 on the state's Citizens Advisory Group for the Tax Study Committee investigating whether to levy a state income tax. Ted was one of only three who voted against the proposed tax package that eventually became law. And in 1967, it was Ted Hayhow who chaired the fund-raising master plan at Hillsdale College known as "Operation Independence," addressing urgent building and operational needs, eventually raising millions of dollars  for the cause.                                                                                                                                                                    During this time, Betty Hayhow was also active at Hillsdale College and with other local organizations and events. It was said that Betty was as comfortable with an old bamboo fishing pole as she was at a Hillsdale College Board of Women Commissioners' meeting (of which she was a member). Betty died suddenly in 1971 while in Florida.

    In late 2013, daughter Sue Hayhow made a gracious donation to the Hillsdale County Historical Society, so that "Ghost Walk 4" might be published in memory of her parents, E.C. "Ted" and Betty Hayhow. Sadly, Sue did not live to see this publication. She died Feb. 12, 2014.