Jean Claire Hager, 88

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Jean Claire (Coates) Hager, 88, of Lakeland, FL, formerly of Litchfield, died on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, surrounded by her loving family.

A Celebration of Life will be scheduled in the summer of 2021.

Mrs. Hager was born on  Jan. 21, 1932, to Martha and Joseph Coates in McKeesport, PA. She was raised in the city as a child, but spent her summers working on her grandparents farm where a strong work ethic and an immense love for the natural world was imbued in her.

A self-proclaimed bright, flighty, industrious and precocious child, Mrs. Hager could do figures well and found herself burdened with early employment to support her family. At age 12, she worked at Molnar's Grocers in McKeesport for $5 a week and a large bottle of 7-Up. Her mother kept the money and she kept the 7-Up. She also assisted the grocer owners with housework and was once rewarded by being able to bathe in a regular tub with hot and cold running water. She had neither, hot water nor a bathtub at home.

She met her future husband, Ernest Allen Hager, in  junior high school. Theirs was a youthful romance that blossomed through high school and matured to a deeply loving lifelong dedication to one another for 45 years.

Upon graduation from high school, Mrs. Hager immediately entered nursing school and quickly rose to the top of her class. She was awarded a Degree in Nursing from the University of Illinois in 1978. Her career was the perfect expression of her nurturing gifts which she continued until retirement. 

Mrs. Hager had an insatiable appetite for learning, a superb sarcastic wit and was a voracious reader. She especially enjoyed period piece autobiographies. Mrs. Hager was a student of history, architecture and art her entire life and deeply enjoyed traveling and new experiences overseas. She was most notably an exceptionally talented writer and found the craft to be a therapeutic escape. Her volumes of family letters and journal entries serve as an archival family treasure.

Mrs. Hager is survived by four children, Sue Ellen (Bruce) Beers, Nelson Allen (Sharree Wesley) Hager, Mary (Bill) Schneider, Carl Allen (Michelle Cox) Hager, Janet Stockton Hager and Melinda Kay Hager; fifteen grandchildren, Dianne Lynn Daniel, Rachel Beers Harrison, Joshua Evan Beers, Sasha Claire McInnis, Delilah Joy Maier, Ninatska Michelina Hager, Gabriel Allen Hager, Emily Grace Hager, Dorothy Jean Bearson, Lauren Hager Hall, Mackenzie Claire Hager, Madeline Ruth Schneider, Allen Hager Schneider, Catherine Claire Hager and Jacob Allen Hager; and two great-grandchildren, Robert Paul Meier, Jr. and Avery Violet Maier.

She was preceded in death by her husband; and two sons, Bradford Allen Hager and David Allen Hager.

Memorials may be directed to Salvation Army in Lakeland, FL.