Where Food, Drinks & Stories Are Shared

Lynn Hagen

December 18, 1947 - July 22, 2007
Kalamazoo, MI

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Service

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
4:30 PM EDT
Betzler Life Story Funeral Homes
Kalamazoo Location
6080 Stadium Drive
Kalamazoo, MI 49009
(269) 375-2900
Driving Directions

Visitation

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
5:30 PM to 8:00 PM EDT
Betzler Life Story Funeral Homes
Kalamazoo Location
6080 Stadium Drive
Kalamazoo, MI 49009
(269) 375-2900

Reception after the funeral at the Life Story Center.

Driving Directions

Contributions


At the family's request memorial contributions are to be made to those listed below. Please forward payment directly to the memorial of your choice.

American Cancer Society
P.O. Box 22478
Oklahoma City, OK 73123
(800) 227-2345
Web Site

West Michigan Cancer Center
200 North Park Street
Kalamazoo, MI 49007
(269) 382-2500
Driving Directions
Web Site

Flowers


Below is the contact information for a florist recommended by the funeral home.

Schafer's Flowers Inc.
3274 Stadium Drive
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
(800) 760-7050
Driving Directions
Web Site

Life Story / Obituary


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There are no nobler professions, nothing greater for the common good, than that of a teacher. Teachers shape our minds, our deeds, and our futures, through their words, wisdom and example. Lynn Hagen was a wonderful teacher to so many, but not only to her pupils. She taught us all so much, as a loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend. Today her lessons, and her love, live on in all who knew her.

Lynn’s story began on a cold winter day in 1947, as the Christmas holiday approached in Saginaw, Michigan. Those were such hopeful times, as America’s heroes returned victorious from war, beginning the Baby Boomer generation. On December 18, 1947, Alfredo and Elizabeth (Woerl) Rubalcava had a boom of their own, with the birth of a beautiful baby girl, a daughter they named Erlynda.

Lynn was the oldest of four girls in the family’s Saginaw home, where she attended Holy Family Elementary School, before graduating from St. Peter and Paul High School in 1966. A very bright young woman, she then attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, earning her teaching degree in 1970. Lynn later earned her Master’s degree from WMU in 1976.

Degree in hand, Lynn soon began teaching at Pine Trails Elementary in Allegan in 1971, where she would be a beloved teacher for the next 20 years, affecting so many young lives so positively.

Her personal life also began to bloom, when she met a wonderful man named Fred Hagen through some mutual friends. They began dating, quickly fell in love, and were married on August 23, 1975, at the Presbyterian Church in Richland. The couple was blessed with two beautiful daughters in the coming years, first Sarah in 1979, followed by Allyson a year later, who filled Lynn with pride and joy.

Eventually, Lynn began teaching at Amberly Elementary in Portage in 1991, where she remained until retiring in 2004. In her well-deserved retirement, she enjoyed collecting rocks, beach glass and driftwood from their trips to Lake Superior, making pottery, and creating beautiful garden stepping stones, too. She also volunteered fro the American Diabetes Association, and was a member of First Presbyterian in Paw Paw. Most of all, Lynn loved spending more time with her family, who taught the teacher what was truly most important in life.

Sadly, Lynn died on Sunday, July 22, 2007 at Rose Arbor Hospice in Kalamazoo, at the age of 59.

Lynn was a wonderful woman, a beloved wife, mother, grandmother and friend. Most of all, she was a teacher, who taught so much in her time with us. Today her lessons, and her love, lives on in all who knew her. She will be greatly missed.

Members of her family include her husband Fred, 2 daughters: Allyson Hagen, Sarah and her husband Michael Breidenbach, and grandson Dominic; 3 sisters: Suzie and her husband Harold Day, Ruth Kolodziej, and Alfreda and her husband Ted McLaughlin. She also leaves behind several dear friends including Marge Mckee.

Funeral Services will be held at 4:30 pm Wednesday at Life Story Funeral Home- Betzler Kalamazoo, 6080 Stadium Drive. A reception to follow until 8 pm at the Life Story Center, located at the funeral home.

Please visit Lynn’s memory page at www.lifestorynet.com, where you can read her Life Story, share a favorite memory or photo, sign her memory book online or make a memorial donation to the West Michigan Cancer Center or the American Cancer Society.

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