Benjamin Kinsey Hays was born on July 7, 1870, in Oxford, North Carolina. Hays was a physician who served on the Committee of American Physicians and guided the state's mobilization of medical resources during World War I. He was drawn into active service with the Medical Corps in May 1918 and served principally at the general hospital at Oteen outside of Asheville, North Carolina, until his honorable discharge in August 1919. He died in Oxford on July 5, 1946.