Margaret Hayes

Who was Margaret Hayes?

Margaret Hayes was an American film, stage, and television actress.

The 1920 United States Census lists her as age 6 Florette Regina Ottenheimer in Baltimore, Maryland. She was often billed as Maggie Hayes in her film credits. She is perhaps best known for her role as Lois Judby Hammond in the 1955 Glenn Ford film Blackboard Jungle.

In 1956, she guest-starred as an historical figure Dora Hand in three episodes of the ABC/Desilu western television series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, with Hugh O'Brian as marshal Wyatt Earp. In those segments she plays a popular dance hall girl who sings in the church choir and is the romantic interest of James H. "Dog" Kelley, the mayor of Dodge City, Kansas, from 1877 to 1881, played by Paul Brinegar. In Hayes' third appearance on the series, "So Long, Dora, So Long", Dora is shot to death by a Texas cowboy, Jim Rellance, played by Joe Turkel. Rellance has his own interest in the older Dora, who instead urges him to find a younger woman. Rellance sets out to kill rival suitor Mayor Kelley but instead kills Dora by shooting into a cabin where Rellance mistakenly believes Kelley, rather than Dora, is sleeping.