Judy Frances Hager

Judy Frances Hager, was born August 18, 1946, and died July 27, 2020, at Brookdale at Rock Springs.  A native of Madison County, North Carolina, she graduated from Appalachian State Teachers College (B.A. degree), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph.D. degree), and Central University in Durham, North Carolina (J.D. degree). She taught English classes for several years in various colleges and universities in North Carolina and other states and then practiced law in Marshall, North Carolina and Tennessee from 1997 to 2015 before retiring to develop her creative side by writing, making jewelry, crafting baskets, playing the piano and drawing.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank B. Shelton and Oleta Rambo Shelton, of Shelton-Poole Road, Marshall, North Carolina; her sister, Jenny Lynne Shelton Piner of Ocala, Florida; her first husband, George Philip Hager III, A Lutheran student-minister of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and by her second husband, Stanley Gilbert Smith of Hickory, North Carolina.

Judy is survived by her son, Dr. Shelton Philip Hager and wife, Melissa Clemons Hager, and his two children, Sarah Margaret Hager and Barbara Grace Hager, all of Kingsport, TN; sister, Sandra Ann Shelton Jablonski and her family: brother-in-law, Alfred Emil Jablonski, niece, Jenny Rebecca Jablonski Phillips, nephew, Thomas Alfred Jablonski, and their families; niece, Millie Marie Piner Poole and her family, of Ocala, Florida; and three step-children:  Jeffrey Alan Smith, Donna Smith Meadows Shumaker, and Eric R. Smith, and their families, of Hickory, North Carolina.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.