Dale L. Hays, 72, of Spring Hill, Florida, passed away Thursday, May 7, 2026, at Bayonet Point Hospital. He was born in Streator, Illinois, to Robert Leo Hays and Joanne Duvall Hays and was the eldest of five children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dale spent much of his life in his hometown. At 21, he joined the United States Navy, where he served as an optical instrument repairman. While stationed in the Mediterranean, he traveled to many countries and repaired equipment aboard Navy ships and submarines. He received the National Defense Service Medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After leaving the military, Dale worked as a welder for Interlake Steel Corporation in the Chicago area for 23 years. He later moved to Colorado, where he served as an armed federal security officer for about 20 years. In January 2019, he fulfilled his dream of retiring to Florida and made his home in Hernando County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Always an avid outdoorsman, Dale\u2019s daughters fondly remember camping, fishing, and skiing with him as they grew up. He also loved golf and took special pride in his custom chopper motorcycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dale was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Daniel Hays & sister, Dawn Hillman. Those left to cherish his memory is his loving companion, Debra Bertholf; his sister, Diana Stephenson & brother, David Hays; his daughter Carrie Hays, her husband, Avni Ozborcek, and granddaughter Ayla of New Orleans; his daughter Andrea Hays, her companion, Mike VanDuzer, and granddaughter Miley of Streator, Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dale will be interred at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida with military honors. A Celebration of His Life in Streator, Illinois is being planned for this Summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arrangements are in the care of Chas. E. Davis Funeral Home, Inverness, Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dale L. Hays, 72, of Spring Hill, Florida, passed away Thursday, May 7, 2026, at Bayonet Point Hospital. He was born in Streator, Illinois, to Robert Leo Hays and Joanne Duvall Hays and was the eldest of five children. Dale spent much of his life in his hometown. At 21, he joined the United States […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990003,"featured_media":120239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120238,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120235\/revisions\/120238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasdavis.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}