Krista Ann Hays

Krista Ann Hays passed away early Saturday morning after a year-long fight with pancreatic cancer. She was peaceful and comfortable and surrounded by family. She was a mother, wife, friend, and dedicated 23 year Navy spouse. Krista pushed her family towards adventure all over the world. She made a home and built communities in Florida, the Pacific Northwest, Japan, Scotland, California, Nigeria, Virginia, Cameroon, Germany, Djibouti, and Italy before returning to Ohio to fight her disease with family.

First and foremost, Krista was a devoted Mom. Everything she did, and every activity she took on was meant to raise her girls into strong young women and build the environment around them. Acting as an immediate emergency contact, hosting play dates and sleepovers, taking care of her girls’ friends, shuttling gaggles to practice, meets, games and events; she was always taking care of her family.

Everywhere Krista went, she strengthened and reinforced the communities around her. She was a passionate girl scout leader establishing troops overseas in five different locations so that her girls could have the same adventures and growth she did. She lead squadron families with hers through five deployments and countless detachments and exercises. She expanded the AFRICOM Families Forward program to introduce US service families to life working at Embassies on the African continent. She served as Community Liaison Officer in Djibouti, getting paid for what she was already doing, stitching together the world around her for the benefit of all there. She co-authored the Navy Foreign Area Officer Overseas Life Handbook, providing a how-to resource for families working for the Navy and the US abroad. She was a mentor for young families about to move to adventurous and austere locations world-wide and reveled in this role.

Krista is taken too soon; leaving behind two strong, intelligent, energetic, beautiful, young women, her husband, her parents, siblings and in-laws. She leaves a hole in a loving web of family and friends across Ohio, the United States, and the World.

In lieu of flowers we ask friends and family to consider donations to any of these organizations that supported us during her fight: The James, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Fisher House, or PANCAN the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network