Jim Hager’s death: A personal note
Like most folks, I had a really hard time telling apart Jim and Jon Hager. One of the reasons is that they were both so disarmingly friendly and funny that it was hard to tell their personalities apart, let alone their looks. (The Hagers did part their hair on different sides, but I never really caught on who had the left part and who had the right.)
I met them early on in my celebrity journalism career, and I, like most who meet them, couldn’t helped but be sucked into their silly vortex right off the bat. I’d see the Hager twins at nearly every charity event I covered this decade and last. Whether it was raising money to battle cancer, child abuse, hunger, even elephant abuse — all brought out the Hagers.
I brought my mother, a.k.a. Ma Schmitt in my old column, to one of these events during one of her visits here from Pittsburgh. When we were kids, my mother, a bit of a feminist, banned us from watching Hee Haw because she thought the Hee Haw Honeys were, uh, well, something she didn’t want her children to watch.
So Ma Schmitt didn’t know who the Hagers were when they approached and turned on the charm. First, they spent five minutes telling her what a wonderful son she had raised and what a good job she must’ve done as a parent. This, FYI, is an excellent opening move with any Jewish mother.
Then, the Hagers started in on, essentially, a private comedy show for my mother, who, after a couple of seconds of stunned silence, started roaring with laughter. Like, she was loud. So loud, I found myself trying to shush my mother. (That did not work, though she did stop laughing for a second to shoot me a look.)
The Hagers then quizzed my mother about herself, where she grew up, what she did for a living, what were her plans for the rest of her stay in Nashville.
The next morning, the Hagers showed up where we said we were going for breakfast, and they presented Ma Schmitt with a single red rose. She blushed, and it was only moments before she was roaring again. (I thought better of the shush that time.)
My mother kept the rose in water in her room for the rest of her stay.
“I know those two are full of crap. And they’re completely corny,” she declared.
“But I completely and totally love them.”
Me too.
on May 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
As a former publicist for The Hager Twins, I was shocked and saddened to hear of Jim’s passing. He and Jon used to send me postcards from tour stops, and cards of appreciation for no particular reason. No other client of mine ever did that. Ten years after our professional relationship ended, I still bumped into Jim and Jon regularly, and they never failed to ask about my son, who was eleven or twelve when I began representing them. Like his brother, Jim was kind, funny, and over-the-top, and I will miss him dearly. My deepest condolences to Jon.
on May 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 am
Heaven is a happier, funnier place with Jim Hager as a new resident. Earth is lucky he had a twin. Jon … we love you.
on May 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I remember the Hager twins from Disneyland and all the wonderful memories of the summer they
played on the Tomorrowland stage. Saw them in
concert with Buck Owens and they always made me
laugh in the corn fields on Hee Haw!