Hagan family matriarch dies at 100
“She lived a lot, she saw a lot and she never stopped.” Those words were used Wednesday by Stephanie Wilkinson of Pittsburgh to describe Bernadine Hagan of Uniontown, who died Tuesday at the age of 100.
Wilkinson, Hagan’s great-granddaughter, said the family matriarch was the center of their family, a role that Wilkinson said Hagan was very proud to fill.
The public knew Hagan as being the former owner of Kentuck Knob and for her family’s business, Hagan Ice Cream Co., which was in the family for three generations.
Hagan also was known for her community involvement that included the women’s hospital board, as well as the Uniontown Service League, the Green Gardeners and Touchstone Center for Crafts; the last three of which she was a founding member.
“She was still going strong,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said Hagan continued to shop, have her hair done and lived on her own.
Hagan died in Uniontown Hospital, just days after being hospitalized for dehydration.
“She just got tired,” Wilkinson said of the end of Hagan’s life.
Although she was only about a month away from turning 101, Wilkinson said Hagan was very happy with her active life.
“She didn’t want to go live in a personal care home. She said she didn’t want to live with a bunch of old people,” Wilkinson said. “She had more of a social life than I do.”
Bernardine Landis Hagan was born Feb. 20, 1909, in Rockwood, Somerset County. She moved to Uniontown when she was age 7 and graduated from Uniontown High School in 1926. Hagan then went to college in Indiana, now Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and returned to Uniontown, where she taught at Berkley School before she married I.N. Hagan.
The Hagans, who married during the Great Depression 80 years ago in the same church where her funeral service will be held, grew up on the same street, first meeting each other in fifth grade.
Although both Hagan and her husband were only children and they only had one son, the family had grown in recent years to include much more.
The Hagans had a son, Paul, who had two children: Chris and Wendy. Chris married Mary and had four children: Stephanie, Samantha, Christopher Thomas and Mark. Stephanie is married to Jim Wilkinson and they have three children: Christian, who turns 4 on Feb. 22, and twin daughters Caylie and Taylor, who are 16 months old.
“I haven’t had this many members of family for years,” she said in an interview with the Herald-Standard last year as she balanced one of the babies on her lap just before her 100th birthday.
“She still held the babies, she went out shopping,” Wilkinson said.
Hagan was part of a group called The Wednesday Painters, local artists who painted together at the Hopwood House, now Chez Gerard restaurant, from the mid-1940s to mid-50s.
Kentuck Knob was designed for the couple by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They moved into the Chalk Hill home in 1956 and lived there for 30 years before moving back to Uniontown. I.N. Hagan died in 1992.
Lord Peter Palumbo of England bought the house and opened it to the public in 1996. Last year Hagan said it was odd to have the public running through your former home.
“She never slowed down and she wasn’t going to let her age slow her down,” Wilkinson said.
Visitation will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. today at the Andrew D. Ferguson Funeral Home Inc., 80 Morgantown St., Uniontown. A funeral service will be held at Asbury United Methodist Church on Friday morning, where the family will start receiving guests at 10 a.m.
Interment will be private.