Cloe Bell Hayes was too scared to travel.
Except the little old lady was obsessively curious of the great big world around her. So, she would ask anyone who’d listen to give her a rock from other parts of the country.
“She never had the opportunity to go outside of Oklahoma and Texarkana. She just loved all kinds of rocks and she decided that she wanted [a] rock from every state,” her grandson, Steven Hayes, told the Star-Telegram. “And so, she would often ask somebody if they’d vacation in Colorado, ‘would pick me up a rock?’”
Many obliged. Mama Hayes soon had a collection of rocks from all 48 states — enough stones to build a concrete sculpture of a Texas star. Nearly a century later, her family wants the 800-pound heirloom to travel to the places she couldn’t visit. The hope is that their piece of family history will ultimately find a home on the grounds of the Texas Capitol.
“I asked Governor [Greg] Abbott the last time I saw him,” Hayes said. “It’s going to happen.”
The Star-Telegram reached out to the governor’s office for comment and have not received a response.
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In the younger Hayes’ telling, the star is just one of the tales in his family’s storied past. He claims some of his ancestors were wagoners for George Washington. What is known for sure is that seven generations of the Hayes have called Texas home — that practically takes things back to the late 1880s.
This month Hayes and a band of helpers are taking the family star on a nationwide tour starting in Oklahoma. Whether they are able to complete the tour is still in doubt. But that has not stopped the 67-year-old from saying that the display of the heirloom in states Mama Hayes collected mementos from is to raise money to help defray the burgeoning national debt.
If his quest seems quixotic, Hayes said minds will be changed once people hear of his family’s patriotic past. He expects donations to flood a charitable group the family will form called the Cloe Bell Star Foundation, he said. Every cent the foundation collects will go directly to the federal government, he said.
“Every American owes $80,000 to $85,000 per citizen [towards the national debt]. And this is impossible for America to pay off that debt,” an emotional Hayes said, tears welling up in his eyes.
His father, James, fought in the European theater during World War II. Two of his uncles also fought in the war.
“Because of my dad’s wise leadership to save every penny during World War II, he was able to buy 27 acres in the heart of Colleyville.” Hayes said.
It was on that property that the idea of the Colleyville star got its inspiration. Hayes’ father, James, built a little wood house for his family to live in, and it is where the initial star began to take shape. It was while the family lived in this house that Hayes and a sister, Elizabeth, were born. Four years later, Mama Hayes died of an aneurysm in 1960.
When the family later moved to Fort Worth, they donated the Colleyville property to Cross Creek Baptist church. A facility was built across from the old family homestead which now houses the church office.
For years the star was proudly left in place in the old family homestead. Forgotten for more than two decades. Then Hayes got a call from the Colleyville Historical Preservation Committee in 1985.
The group was running low on money and needed someone to take the star.
“They contacted my family, they knew about the history of the star. And so they said, ‘Would you like to have [the star back]?’,” Hayes said.
Of course they did. Hayes had the star removed from the old house and moved to his Fort Worth home where, days ago, he took it off one side of his house and loaded it on the bed of a pickup. The plan, according to Hayes, is to hoist the heavy heirloom into a covered wagon and set it on its national tour.
“She hardly ever traveled hardly out of Texas. And that’s one of the reasons why this can be kind of a fun thing,” Hayes said. “This star is gonna go to places that she never got to go.”