Ronald C. Hays, 71, mail carrier

Ronald C. Hays, 71, of King of Prussia, a mail carrier in Ardmore for 35 years and a union official, died of a brain aneurysm Thursday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Mr. Hays grew up in Ardmore and graduated from Lower Merion High School. He was driving a dump truck in 1957 when he decided to become a postal worker. "At $1.82 an hour, it was considered a good job," he told a reporter in 1992, when he retired. Mr. Hays said he was the first African American to work in the Ardmore post office. When asked whether he had encountered any difficulties, he said: "Not one time did I ever have any racial problems."

For 20 years, Mr. Hays delivered mail along the same route, which included the shops in Suburban Square in Ardmore.

Mr. Hays had been president and secretary-treasurer of Main Line Branch 1357 of the National Association of Letter Carriers before it became Southeast Pennsylvania Merged Branch 725 in the mid-1990s. In the 1980s and 1990s, he also was secretary of the Pennsylvania Letter Carriers Association.

Mr. Hays was the first African American to become a union officer, according to Jack Coyle, a former president of the Main Line Branch.

Mr. Hays also delivered flowers for Brill's Flowers in Ardmore for more than a decade. After retiring, he sold uniforms to postal workers and was a computer instructor at the Ardmore Senior Center.

In 1967, Mr. Hays married Juanita Aley, who lived around the corner from him in Ardmore.

Besides his wife, he is survived by daughters Lisa and Susan; two brothers; and a sister.

The funeral will be at 7 p.m. today at Zion Baptist Church, 219 W. Spring Ave., Ardmore. Friends may call from 5 p.m. Mr. Hays was a lifelong member of the church.