June 8, 1922 - January 23, 2020
Delphine Jeanette Hagge passed away at home on January 23, 2020 at age 97. Born Delphine Jeanette Smith in 1922 in Fowler, Michigan, she moved a number of times before high school as a result of the Great Depression. Delphine (known as Jeanette growing up, and still known that way to virtually everyone she knew “back East”) started working in Lansing after graduating high school and stayed there until 1944, when she and a girlfriend decided to enlist. She spent two years in the Navy as a secretary, both in California and Washington, DC before being discharged in 1946.
A few months after returning to Michigan, she and another friend decided to come to California, arriving in Glendale in November, 1946. She got a job at Bank of America, but had a plan to take flying lessons under the GI BIll with the goal of becoming a bush pilot. She obtained her private pilot’s license, but her work schedule didn’t allow the time to complete her commercial license. A couple of years later, while bowling in a Glendale league, she met the love of her life, Norman Hagge. After going out for a few years, they were married in 1957. She left work in 1961 when their son Alan was born, returning to banking 7 years later and working until her retirement in the early 1980s. Norman was already retired due to detached retinas, so they spent the early years of their retirement traveling the country, and later the world, taking a number of cruises and european trips.
They always loved the mountains, and in 1984 decided to buy land and build a house in Big Bear. Norman and Gordon - his son from a prior marriage - did much of the work themselves. The house was completed for about a year before they decided that they missed the grandkids too much and sold the house to stay in Glendale, closer to family.
Delphine had always been a family person, often hosting parties where the children, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins would come together for a wonderful meal and to catch up on everyone’s lives. After Norm’s passing, her house remained a focal point for the Hagge family. Whenever friends and relatives visited Southern California, they knew they were always welcome to stay at her house.
Delphine is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Alan & Sylvia Hagge, her stepson Gordon Hagge, grandchildren Erik, Heidi, Kirk and Sarah Hagge and great-grandchildren Ryan, Alexandra, Madison, Brenden and Olivia Hagge. She was preceded in death by her husband of 47 years, Norman Hagge. She will be interred at Grandview Memorial Cemetery in Glendale.
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