Betty L. Hager

She was born March 23, 1950 in Middletown, New York.

Betty was predeceased by her parents, Howard “Jim” Hager and Lucille Hager, and her only nephew, John M. Hager.

She is survived by her life partner of 50 years, Christine Zettler, her older brother, Howard Hager, her younger sister, Donna Titsworth, her grand-nephews, Wyatt and Howard Hager, her grand-niece, Rebecca Hager, and her baby great grand-niece, Magnolia Rossey.

Betty grew up as an Air Force brat, moving to Indiana, South Carolina, Brooklyn, and Key West. She always maintained that she loved living on Air Force bases. She was able to start her own ironing business for GIs at the young age of 11; she said she made her best money before inspection week. Honoring her father’s 30 years of Air Force service, Betty would always go out of her way to generously pay a veteran’s restaurant meal if she saw they were wearing a hat with the name of their service. Her father said, “That’s just what you should do.”

After 40 years, Betty retired from Genpak, a manufacturing company that made disposable dishware for institutions and custom printed containers for many of the fast-food chains throughout the country. She was promoted through the ranks of Quality Control Manager, Distribution Manager, Production Manager, and retired from the company as Plant Manager. As Plant Manager, she oversaw 275 employees in extrusion and thermoforming production, maintenance, packing, warehouse, distribution, in addition to contract negotiations and union grievances.

She was the first female plant manager in Genpak’s 19 plants throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her plant routinely scored the highest ratings for health and safety inspections required by outside accreditation associations. Betty was extremely well-liked by the employees, and knew the names and faces of most their children; she also was compassionate with employees that needed addiction rehabilitation. Every year, Betty tried to out-do herself for the Employee Appreciation Day picnic with grilled steaks and roasted pigs, unique games, impressive prizes, chair massages, ice cream trucks, and imprinted jackets. For the holidays, she personally handed-out vouchers for turkeys with the employees paychecks.

Betty enthusiastically volunteered with the program "Puppies Behind Bars". The puppies were trained in prisons by inmates in the NY correctional system. The inmates shared their cells with the dogs, and trained them for 18 months to eventually be given to Afghanistan veterans as emotional support dogs. Betty was one of the “socializers.” These were thoroughly vetted volunteers who took the dogs into their homes overnight for weekends. Volunteers assimilated them into home environments, interacting with children and the elderly, taken to restaurants, malls, and grocery stores to experience different sights and sounds. She was always stopping to answer questions about the dog with the red vest.

In addition, Betty also actively volunteered for a church-run warming center in New York that provided over-night sleeping accommodations and hot dinners for the unhoused.

Betty moved from Pine Bush in the Hudson Valley of NY in 2018 to live in the new "Cresswind" Charlotte 55+ community near Mint Hill, NC. She had lifelong friends who had moved to Charlotte, and wanted a snow-free place to retire to. She befriended a multitude of neighborhood dogs, and always carried a pocketful of biscuits when she was out walking. An avid pickleball player in both leagues and tournaments, Betty was Vice-President of the Pickleball Club Board of Directors at Cresswind Charlotte.

Betty loved traveling. She had been to almost all the U.S. states, and after retirement, she traveled to Africa, Galapagos, Antarctica, Australia, Costa Rica, and Manitoba to see the polar bears waiting for the Hudson Bay to freeze. Seeing animals in the wild was the motivation for those trips.

Family and friends are invited to a visitation honoring Betty on Friday, August 15, 2025 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at McEwen Funeral Service-Mint Hill Chapel, 7428 Matthews-Mint Hill Road, Mint Hill, NC 28227.