Margaret Hadley, affectionately known as “The Hat Lady,” has officially hung up her hat after almost 45 years with North Mississippi Medical Center.

After graduating from Tupelo High School, Margaret worked for the former Bank of Mississippi. While on maternity leave from her bank job in 1978, she learned about a job opportunity at NMMC and applied. She was quickly hired as ward secretary on NMMC’s Pediatric Unit, where she spent the next 18 years.

From there, she transferred to NMMC’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Center, which was then housed in a small building on Garfield Street. Around 25 years ago, Margaret moved with Outpatient Rehab to Longtown Medical Park. There is where she acquired her nickname and all the hats.

“A patient made a hat when they went on vacation and brought it back to me. That’s how it started,” Margaret says. “Then people kept giving me hats. I was fortunate that my managers always allowed me to wear them. They were a conversation piece—the children loved it when I wore them, and the adults seemed to love it too. I’d like to think that in the smallest way I lifted people’s spirits and helped them during difficult times in their lives.”

From her post at the registration desk, Margaret’s mission was always to try to encourage patients before they got to their therapy appointment. “The staff would tell them they always knew when I was at the desk because their patients would be smiling when they came in,” she says. “I can’t explain how much joy the patients have given me.”

By the end of her career, Margaret had accumulated more than 60 hats. Many are holiday-themed and some even make noise. “One of my favorite hats was a catfish hat,” she says. “As retirement drew near, I gave that hat to one of our pediatric patients. The little boy cried when I gave it to him, and his grandfather did too.”

Some of the more stylish ones in Margaret’s collection were gifted to her by a patient when her mother passed away. While she has given away many of her hats to patients in recent weeks, “I just can’t part with those just yet,” she says.

NMMC was a family affair for Margaret, as all but one sister—Brenda Hodges—also retired from the hospital. She worked alongside Betty Witherspoon at Outpatient Rehabilitation, while Shunda Payne and Pearl Clay worked in Food and Nutrition Services.

Reflecting on her career, Margaret says, “I’m truly grateful for every person I’ve met, every coworker I’ve worked with and every administrator I’ve worked for. I was truly called for this job—there’s no doubt about it. I know I was.”

Margaret looks forward to spending more time with her family, which includes daughter Naketha Hadley of Oxford and son Brenton Hadley of Tupelo, as well as five grandchildren who call her “Gigi”: Jalancia, Hadlee, Ethan, Jase and Eli.

Margaret is an active member of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church and an avid Dallas Cowboys fan. Retirement plans include an upcoming trip to Hawaii, joining a reading club and volunteering as a homeless advocate.