Homeless veteran to be laid to rest today

A funeral today will memorialize the homeless veteran around whom a Little Rock community rallied.

Services for James Hays, whose body was found floating in a War Memorial Park pond last month, will be held at 3 p.m. today at Little Rock Funeral Home, according to Jason Payne Kahler, a Hillcrest resident who spearheaded the effort to give the 67-year-old a funeral.

Though the death is still under investigation, police said nothing indicates that Hays’ death was anything other than an accident.

The Army National Guard will present Hays, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, military honors at the memorial. Donations will have to entirely pay for the service, Kahler said.

When news of Hays’ death reached him, Kahler said he knew immediately that he could not let the man be forgotten.

“I feel like I owe it to him, he’s done so much,” Kahler said. “As down and out as he was, he would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He was always there.”

Kahler, who knew Hays only as “Old Man James” for almost 20 years, said he learned Hays’ last name only when Kahler began working to organize the funeral.

With help from the Little Rock Funeral Home, Kahler has worked to prove Hays’ veteran status and qualify him to receive military honors. In the process, however, Kahler said he came to understand just how many lives Hays touched.

So far, Kahler said he has raised $490 for Hays’ funeral, which will cost approximately $2,600.

Hays’ ex-wife, Robin Hall, who learned of his death days after his body was discovered, said he was a loving but deeply troubled man.

“He had a tragic life, but a wonderful life when I was married to him because he finally settled down,” Hall said. “But he was like a bird in a cage … he wanted to be free.”

When he was young, Hall said, Hays’ mother died from cancer, and his father, a former professional golfer, suffered from alcoholism. One night, Hall said, Hays’ father broke into the golf course at War Memorial Park and was arrested. He was later found hanging in his cell, she said.