Jane Slocum Hayward

A Third Generation Begins

Hayward chose dentistry after helping her father in his office. One letter of recommendation said, “It is my opinion that this girl is especially qualified for professional training in dentistry. Her mental capacity is excellent. Her physical health is excellent. Her ideals are excellent.” Her junior college dean added, “She has a natural scientific feel of things.”

Dental School Romance

While at University of Michigan’s dental school, Jane Slocum met and married James Rogers Hayward whose father was also a dentist. She graduated a year ahead of him and worked at the school as a clinical instructor. Slocum, now Hayward was careful to be completely impartial toward her husband when he was in her class!

Like Father Like Daughter

While raising her family in Ann Arbor, Hayward commuted by train to Detroit where she and her father shared an office in the David Whitney Building on Woodward Avenue. They had separate patients, but helped each other in emergencies. While her children were young, Hayward practiced two days a week.

An Eagerly Anticipated Event

Twice a year on a Saturday, Hayward took her three children to her office to have their teeth cleaned. Afterward, they went out for ice cream and shopped for clothes at J.L. Hudson’s department store in Detroit. Hayward made models of her children’s deciduous teeth as mementos.

Two of her children chose to work in dentistry, one as a dental hygienist. Of the seven practitioners in the family, five were University of Michigan graduates.