Margaret Hedges-Yost

Margaret Bryan Hedges-Yost, a summer resident of Wainscott for many years, died on March 18 in Syracuse following a stroke. She was 102 and had lived in the Menorah Park senior citizens home there for five years.

Mrs. Hedges-Yost, who was known as Peggy, was a psychiatric social worker at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City for several years before moving to Syracuse in 1941 with her husband, Herbert Hedges Jr. There, she went to work for Child and Family Services then chose to stay home to care for their sons.

She also became active in her community, volunteering at Rockefeller Memorial Church as a Sunday school director and being a member of Zonta Circle, among other church activities.

After her marriage, much of her time every summer was spent at the family farm in Wainscott. She could be found watching the moon rise over the ocean in the evenings, and after she had grandchildren, she introduced them to nature. Under her guidance, they became great sleuths, her family said, finding the best places to go for beach plums and making jelly and learning to identify birds by appearance and song. 

After Mr. Hedges died in 1988, she married William Yost, a designer who made stained-glass windows. They shared seven years of marriage, during which she shared his interest in glass and collected Steuben and Sandwich glass.

She was born in Bath, N.Y., to Daniel Beach Bryan and the former Anna Rowlett Aulls on Nov. 27, 1911. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1933, where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and received a master’s degree in social work from Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

She was among the oldest and most loyal of Syracuse University sports fans, dating to when one of her brothers was its athletic director there in the 1930s and ’40s. Her Saturdays in the fall were spent cheering the football team; Sundays included following her favorite Syracuse players in the pros.

She is survived by her sons, Bryan Hedges of Syracuse and Sagaponack and Stephen Hedges of Rochester and Sagaponack, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

A celebration of her life and burial will be at a later date in the Wainscott Cemetery.

Contributions in her memory have been suggested to the Employees Fund, Menorah Park, Hodes Way, 4101 East Genesee Street, Syracuse 13214.