photograph by chip googe
Hailey Thomas was unmistakable. She would stride into a meeting just as it was beginning — or if we’re being honest, probably a few minutes after — can of La Croix in hand, glasses perched on her head, and claim the seat at the head of the table. If Chip Googe, one of her colleagues on our company’s sales team, was already in that spot, Hailey would stand next to him until he ceded the chair. I suppose you could say that she was bossy, but she did it all with such good humor that you never felt bossed around — in fact, you were almost sure to be in a better mood afterwards. That was Hailey.
I met Hailey for the first time in 2020, over Zoom. At that time, not many people were adept at seeming personable and engaging over video meetings, but Hailey was a natural. After 30 minutes with her, in any medium, you felt like you had made a new friend — or, more accurately, you felt like you had somehow made an old friend, one you had known forever.
She came to work for us soon afterwards as an account executive. But she had been associated with Contemporary Media (CMI) — the parent company of Memphis Magazine — for many years, beginning in the 1990s. In those days, Hailey sold ads primarily for this magazine. The nineties and early/mid-aughts were glory days for print media, before the 2008 recession, before the rise of digital advertising, and Hailey was in the middle of it all. In 2005, she was pictured on the cover of our sister publication, the Memphis Flyer, celebrating that year’s Best of Memphis winners on the glowing dance floor at Raiford’s along with Hall Prewitt and Mary Helen Randall.
She was energetic, funny, and unorthodox; she was thoughtful and kind. We miss her, and we know many, many others do, too. We should all be so thoroughly ourselves as Hailey was authentically Hailey.
In the cover image, she’s in a black fur coat and black cowboy boots, blonde hair glossy and free, her famous megawatt smile on display. Beginning in 2006, Hailey established herself as executive editor and advertising director at Memphis Health and Fitness, a magazine aligned with her passion for exercise. Hailey had 20 years on me, but didn’t remotely look it, and I’m 100 percent confident she would have crushed me in an arm-wrestling contest — smiling the whole way through.
Hailey died unexpectedly in late February. Losing a friend and colleague is always tough, of course, but losing Hailey felt inconceivable. Rarely have I spent time with anyone as alive as Hailey Thomas was. She was energetic, funny, and unorthodox; she was thoughtful and kind. We miss her, and we know many, many others do, too. We should all be so thoroughly ourselves as Hailey was authentically Hailey.
