Constance L. Hays, wife of John Hays, deputy chairman of Christie’s, died December 5 at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. The cause was cancer, her husband said.

Constance Hays, 44 and a resident of Manhattan, became a member of The New York Times staff in 1986 and for the past eight years covered the business news. Recently she reported on the trial of Martha Stewart. In addition to her duties at The Times, she was the author of The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company for Random House, 2004.

She was born in Manhattan on August 8, 1961, daughter of John Laibe and the former Ann Davis and spent her childhood in Greenwich, Conn., and Hong Kong, where her father was employed by Exxon Chemical Company. She later graduated from Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, Conn., and from Harvard where she received a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies, 1983. Her career in journalism began in Raleigh, N.C., as a reporter for The News and Observer.

In addition to her husband, whom she married in 1986, she is survived by their three children, Sophie, John and Henry, her parents of Greenwich, three brothers, Marc Laibe of Rowayton, Conn.; Timothy Laibe of Bedford, N.H.; and Christopher Laibe of New Orleans; and her sister, Anne Bertolino, Boxborough, Mass.

A Mass of Christian Burial was conducted on Saturday, December 10, at St. Ignatius Loyola Church, New York City. Donations in her memory may be made to the Nantucket Athenaeum, Nantucket MA 02554.