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Sonja "Sunny" Jean Saether Hayes was born in Chicago, Cook, IL to Martin Edward and Dorothea Eileen Slaughter Saether. She married William Foster Hayes and had three children, Jennifer Lynn, Jessica Lorel, and Jacquelyn Lee.

 

Mrs. Hayes has a B.S. in Business Education, an M.S. in Business Education, and a C.A.S. in Business Education from Northern Illinois University. She also took various graduate courses from other colleges. Mrs. Hayes taught high school business courses for eight years and then went to Triton College where she taught Court Reporting. She served as an Educational Consultant to the National Court Reporters Association 1988-1994 and retired as Professor Emeritus after 36 years of teaching. She became interested in genealogy in 1980 when her mother said she knew nothing about her family.

 

Society Memberships 

  • American Ex-Prisoners of War

  • Baronial Order of Magna Charta

  • Continental Society Daughters of Indian Wars

  • Crispell Family

  • Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865

  • Descendants of Brian Boru

  • Descendants of Colonial Mothers 1607 - July 4, 1776 (President General 2025-2027)

  • Descendants of Continental Colonial Officers 

  • Descendants of Early Postmasters 1607-1900

  • Descendants of Fossors

  • Descendants of Miners 1607-1907 (Founder; President General 2019-2024)

  • Descendants of Sheriffs and Constables of Colonial and Antebellum America (Treasurer General 2024-2026)

  • Descendants of the Green Mountain Boys

  • Dutch Colonial Society (Treasurer General 2024-2026)

  • Flagon and Trencher

  • Guild of Colonial Artisans and Tradesmen 1607-1783

  • Hereditary Order Descendants Loyalists & Patriots American Revolution (Chaplain General 2023-2025)

  • Hereditary Order of the Families of Presidents and First Ladies of America (Treasurer General 2019-2027)

  • Hereditary Order of the First Families of Massachusetts (Chaplain General 2024-2026)

  • Hereditary Order of the Red Dragon

  • Hereditary Society of Teachers (Chaplain General 2020-2023)

  • Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic

  • Legion of Vikings and Valkyries

  • Military Order of the Crusades

  • National Guild of Saint Margaret of Scotland

  • National Huguenot Society

  • National Order of the Blue and Gray (Chaplain General 2021-2027)

  • National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century

  • National Society Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century

  • National Society Daughters of Colonial Wars

  • National Society Daughters of the American Colonists

  • National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

  • National Society Daughters of the Union 1861-1865

  • National Society Descendants of American Farmers

  • National Society Descendants of American Railroad Workers 

  • National Society Descendants of Colonial Indentured Servants

  • National Society Descendants of Early Quakers

  • National Society of New England Women

  • National Society of Saints and Sinners

  • National Society of the Dames of the Court of Honor (National Trustee 2021-2023)

  • National Society Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims

  • National Society Southern Dames of America

  • National Society United States Daughters of 1812

  • National Society Women Descendants Ancient & Honorable Artillery Co.

  • Order of Alba

  • Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry

  • Order of Descendants of Colonial Physicians and Chirurgiens (Treasurer General 2019-2027)

  • Order of Descendants of Pirates and Privateers

  • Order of Descendants of the Ancient & Honorable Artillery Company (Governor 2024-2026)

  • Order of Descendants of the Justiciars

  • Order of First Families of Connecticut 1633-1662 (Chaplain 2022-2026)

  • Order of First Families of Vermont 1609-1791

  • Order of Medieval Women: Women of Consequence

  • Order of Star and Sail (Co-Founder; Treasurer General)

  • Order of the Descendants of Native Americans and Friends (Co-Founder; Registrar General 2019-2025)

  • Order of the First Families of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

  • Order of the First Scottish War of Independence, 1296-1320 (Founder; President)

  • Order of the House of Wessex

  • Order of the Kings and Queens in the Holy Lands

  • Order of the Merovingian Dynasty

  • Order of the Norman Conquest

  • Order of the Sovereigns of Ancient Scandinavia

  • Order of Three Crusades 1096-1192

  • Order of William the Marshal 

  • Plymouth Hereditary Society

  • Presidential Families of America

  • Registry of Infamous and Famous Relatives in American Families

  • Scions of Freedom Signers (Co-Founder; Chaplain)

  • Society of Descendants of Lady Godiva

  • Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy

  • Society of the First Families of New York

  • Society of the Order of the Southern Cross

  • Sons and Daughters of the Colonial and Antebellum Bench and Bar 1565-1861

  • The IX (Chaplain 2019 -)

  • Winthrop Society (Chaplain General 2022-2028)

  • National Gavel Society

Published In

  • “Internship – A Practical Approach to Teaching Court Reporting” in the Business Education Forum, a publication of the National Business Education Association, May 1980.

  • “How to Prepare Course Outlines” in the National Shorthand Reporter, a publication of the National Court Reporters Association, November 1988.

  • “Spicing Up Dictation Material to Flavor the Classroom Routine” in the National Shorthand Reporter, January 1991.

  • “Methods of Teaching Current Events to Court Reporting Students, Part I” in BASElines, a publication of the National Court Reporters Association, Summer 1995.  Part II appeared Fall, 1995.

  • “First Ladies Minute,” a semi-annual column in The Executive Diary, a publication of the Hereditary Order of the Families of the Presidents and First Families of America.

Notes 

In 1999, Hayes was awarded the Illinois Court Reporters Association Award of Excellence for Outstanding Educator. She often spoke at teachers’ conferences sponsored by the National Court Reporters Association. Currently, she is the treasurer of the Illinois Heritage Alliance, where Illinois genealogy societies meet annually. She is also taking classes from the Institute of Continued Learning at Roosevelt University. 

Her hobbies include travel and genealogy. She traveled abroad extensively with her husband before he passed away, having visited 73 countries. Recently, her travel consists of genealogy meetings in the United States with friends.

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