Michael S. Hayes died from natural causes on March 26, 2023. He had lived at Saint Joseph’s Residential Care Home in Burlington, Vt., for the past three years after suffering a heart attack and stroke.
Mike was born on April 22, 1956, in Burlington to Forrest “Curly” Hayes and Dorothy Valyou Hayes. The family lived in Essex Junction, Essex Center and South Hero while he was growing up. Some of his favorite childhood activities were Cub Scouts and tap-dancing lessons. Mike became famous among his friends at about age 8, when he was kicked in the chest by a horse. This had no apparent medical effect on him, but, in a prank, a friend persuaded him to inhale deeply from a large jar of strong horseradish, causing him to lose his senses of both smell and taste.
From an early age, Mike was drawn to performing. By junior high, he branched out from his love of horror movies and books to organize a band of ghouls to decorate a haunted house and put on a scary experience. Most of the schoolkids attended, and a local newspaper covered the event. This was long before such amusements were in vogue. With friends, he shot horror movies for high school projects that left students and teachers convulsed with laughter. At birthday parties, Mike liked to do impersonations of wacky characters, some from popular culture but others simply made up. In the summer, he enjoyed hanging out with friends at the beach, listening to music. He could be counted on at such gatherings to let loose with a totally ridiculous long-winded story that would leave everyone groaning. Mike could pull off such entertainment because he could do it so effortlessly and because everyone sensed that underneath his irreverent and jovial behavior lay a very kind person.
Mike’s more formal study of acting began at Burlington High School under his much-admired drama teacher, Peggy O’Brien. One of the school productions was Oklahoma. Later, at what was then Castleton State College, he became deeply involved in both acting and designing and making costumes. Following graduation, he continued as an instructor, teaching costume design and construction. Mike later worked for SAGA food service at the University of Vermont and for many years at Rags and Riches fabric store in South Burlington. At Rags, his expertise in fabric and sewing and his infectious personality won him many devoted clients who would work only with him.
Although Mike was a talented salesman, his heart would always be in performing and making costumes. For many years he was a valued member of the Lyric Theatre Company as an actor and dancer, as well as for designing and constructing costumes and working with the makeup crew.
Mike was an early member of the board of Vermont Cares. To raise money for the organization, he performed with Vermont Cares/Queen City Cabaret. Many of their shows were at the old Pearls Bar on Pearl Street in Burlington.
Mike is best known for his drag character, Margaurite LeMay. With Bob Bolyard (Amber LeMay), the two performed as the Sisters LeMay. With the addition of Johnnie McLaughlin (Cousin Lucy Belle LeMay), the group became the House of LeMay. Mike not only performed with the LeMays but also designed and made all of their costumes. Often intended to evoke a particular holiday or theme, the costumes were outrageous and very funny, setting the tone from the moment the LeMays stepped on stage. With the help of Syndi Zook and Mike’s sister, Nancy Hayes, Mike and Bob created a backstory for the LeMays in which they lived in a double-wide trailer in the Hot Dam Trailer Park in mythical Beaver Pond, Vt., somewhere up in the Northeast “Queendom.” With Craig Hilliard and the Decoys band providing musical accompaniment and Syndi and other friends acting in skits, the LeMays appeared over the years at Pearls, the Saint John’s Club and Three Needs Tap Room, among other venues, almost always to raise money for charity.
Their biggest fundraising venture was organizing and emceeing the Winter Is a Drag Ball over many years. The balls, always held around Valentine’s Day, became legendary for turning out masses of wildly dressed partiers dancing the night away to a variety of stage acts. Mike enjoyed reminding people that alcohol sales for one of the balls held at Higher Ground surpassed even the bar take for a Phish concert. As Mike said, “We drank more than Phish.”
One of the distinctions of the LeMays was that, unlike many drag acts, they did their own singing. Mike/Margaurite had a commanding baritone voice. Some of his favorite songs were serious, such as “Love Don’t Need a Reason” and “I Am What I Am,” and some were more lighthearted, including “Sara Lee” and “Grandma’s Killer Fruitcake.”
Mike loved people. His favorite praise for someone was that they were “fun.” He was great fun, too. As Winston Churchill said of Franklin Roosevelt, meeting Mike for the first time was “like opening a bottle of champagne.” Mike loved to laugh and to make others laugh. As Margaurite and other larger-than-life characters, he created plenty of laughter over the years, not only in stage shows but also in print ads for Rags and Riches and TV ads for Westaff. In one of the most popular of the latter, Mike appeared in drag as an employee with boundary issues when it came to coworkers’ food in the break room. For years after the ad ran, random strangers would greet Mike by yelling the ad’s catchphrase: “Where’s my pudding?”
Mike leaves behind his sister, Nancy Hayes; his brother-in-law, Doug Slaybaugh; nephew and niece, Matt Slaybaugh and Tracy Mann; great-nephews Malcolm, Theo, and Calvin Slaybaugh, who knew him as “Gruncle Mike”; as well as Karen McFeeters Leary, Kevin Leary and the Aphasia Choir; staff and residents of Saint Joseph’s; CCTA’s bus drivers, especially Bertha; his OP (the Other Place) buddies; the House of LeMay; and other friends too numerous to count. A memorial service is planned at Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, Vt., on June 25 from 2-5 p.m.
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 2, 2023.
Seeing you perform in Oklahoma! It is shortly after we became friends, You are missed but never forgotten, as is the ride in Burlington in my Citroen, which remains one of my most cherished memories of you and your brilliant ability to create laughter! Rest well dear one. It is fitting that you, in death; continue to shine and emote smiles, laughter and happiness to the legions who loved you and your fans!