Elizabeth N. Hagedorn

Hagedorn, Elizabeth Todd (Null), age 97, of Middletown, Ohio passed away on April 26, 2012, in Monroe, Ohio at the Mount Pleasant Retirement Village. Elizabeth was born on January 4, 1915, in Franklin, Ohio to parents Ethel Todd Simpson and Cyrus Charles Null. A graduate of Franklin High School, she continued her education at Miami University where she joined the Tri Delta sorority, and at Miami-Jacobs after which she worked for a year as an administrative assistant at Armco Steel Corporation, now AK Steel. At Armco, Elizabeth met Dwight L. Hagedorn of Middletown (deceased 1988), whom she married in 1938. In their fifty years of marriage, as Dwight pursued his career as an Armco executive, they lived in Columbus, Ohio; Dayton (Oakwood), Ohio; Leawood, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City; Shaker Heights, Ohio; Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and then moved back to Middletown in the late 1970s. Throughout the years of many moves, Elizabeth and Dwight owned a summer home on Grand Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan -- a place they both deeply loved. "Libby," as she was known, was a tournament tennis player in her youth; played the organ for years at the First Presbyterian Church in Frank...[more]

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; and was an avid gardener. She loved entertaining friends at her home and was a longtime member of Brown's Run Country Club in Middletown. However, she was best known for her quick wit, her love of antiques, and her passionate interest in family history. Descended from the founders of towns and churches in New Jersey, Virginia and Ohio, Elizabeth was active in several historical societies, including Franklin and Springboro. Among her ancestors was the Revolutionary War General William C. Schenck who founded Franklin in 1796. In the early 1980s, she greatly enjoyed her work with authors Mabel Eldridge and Harriet Foley on the book Franklin in the Great Miami Valley. In the aftermath of Elizabeth's death, one of her close friends in Middletown told the family, "When I think of Libby, I think of what is dignified; I think of the phrase 'tea and toast' and all that is proper." Elizabeth is survived by her two daughters, Sarah Hagedorn Byers, an interior designer and ballet dancer who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Ann Hagedorn, a former Wall Street Journal staff writer and author of five books, now living in Ripley, Ohio; and by one grandson, William Scott Byers, a print media manager residing in Denver, Colorado. The family conducted a grave side funeral arranged by Anderson Funeral Home of Franklin on May 1 at Woodhill Cemetery in Franklin. A memorial service will be held on May 14, 2012 at 2 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 2910 Central Avenue in Middletown, where Elizabeth was a member. Memorial contributions may be made to that church or to the charity of your choice. The family would like to thank the staff at Mount Pleasant and at Senior Independence Hospice for the loving care of Libby. For the past three years, the staff as well as Libby's many friends have transformed her nursing home room into a warm and lively gathering place.