Margaret Louise Hayes was born June 25, 1920, in San Jose, California, and died peacefully at her home in Potomac Falls, Virginia on June 26, 2019, at age 99. She married Thomas "Tommy" Hayes in 1941, and the two spent 67 years together, raising five daughters while moving around the country and overseas during his Air Force career.

Louise was a woman of many hobbies — cooking, quilting, making porcelain dolls, and travel — but bridge was her lasting passion. She and Tommy took up the game together in college and played as partners for the rest of his life. After he died in 2008, she kept playing, first with her sister and later with the bridge community at Falcon's Landing in Potomac Falls.

For many years Louise ran the duplicate bridge game at Falcon's Landing herself, filling tables, pairing up partners, and tallying results in Excel well into her nineties. In 2012 she earned ACBL Bronze Life Master status, and she appeared in the bridge documentary Double Dummy alongside Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, attending its Charlottesville premiere in 2017.

She is survived by four daughters, a sister, and a large extended family of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.