Hayes Clayton dies of injuries from I.E.D.

A Memphis grandmother had felt sorry for the families of the two soldiers killed in Iraq on Christmas Day.

But, that night, Vera Cooper's charitable sorrow became pain and anger when she learned that one of those soldiers was her grandson, 29-year-old Army Capt. Hayes Clayton Jr.

She got a call from her daughter, Marlena Clayton, who is the Army captain's mother living in Georgia. The mother had been speaking on the phone with her son's wife, Monica Clayton, who had put her mother-in-law on hold to answer her door. The visitors had come to say that her husband had died. They had barely been married a year, Cooper said.

His family said he was one of two soldiers killed by a bomb that exploded southwest of Baghdad on Monday.

He was stationed at Fort Riley Army base in Kansas. He had a home near there, his grandmother said.

He was born and spent part of his childhood in Memphis before moving with his family to Texas and later to Georgia. He entered the Army after graduating from Fort Valley (Ga.) State University, where he was in the ROTC, Cooper said.

While growing up, Hayes Clayton visited his grandmother in Memphis on vacations and whenever else he could.

The last time she saw him was this past summer, just before he became a daddy.

"He and his wife were so happy. He was overjoyed," Cooper said. "They were looking forward to the baby ... and preparing a home."

She said he didn't talk to her much about leaving for Iraq. The little they did discuss it was when she broached the subject.

"He said, 'But grandmama, I just got to do what I got to do.' To him, he had a job to do 'cause he was in the military. ... His point was, 'If I go now, I can do my stay and come home.' I think that's what he was saying. He wanted to go and get through with it."

His baby boy, Hayes Clayton III, was born in August. The new dad left for duty in September.

He also leaves his father, Hayes Clayton, an elder in the Church of God in Christ, and two brothers, Eric Hayes and Michael Hayes, all of Fairburn, Ga.

Cooper said her grandson was a "nice young man," respectful to his elders and "a wonderful person. And I'm not saying that just because he was my grandson."

The last time she spoke with him, he was about to leave the country, she said. "He called me from the airport just to say goodbye."

She said she would hear of soldiers getting killed all the time, just like everyone else who keeps up with news from Iraq. She's always sad to hear it. But it's usually a kind of distant sadness.

"I think people forget these are people with family ties," she said.

"To me, he was just my grandson."

From the Commercial Appeal