Crooked Creek Days Ambassadors love their small town

WINFIELD — Every year the Winfield Historical Society and Museum honor a seasoned member of the Winfield Community with the honor of Crooked Creek Ambassador. This year, Don and Carolyn Hagge received that honor.

The two wore broad smiles as they joined the Crooked Creed Days Parade traveling down North Locust Street, Saturday, as part of the honor of being ambassadors.

In addition to a spot toward the beginning of the parade, the Ambassadors also worked with the Winfiled Museum to create a window display in their current location.

Born and raised in Winfield, Carolyn met Don after she graduated high school and attended the American Institute of Business in Des Moines.

After college, life took Don to a job in California where he worked as a production coordinator with top secret clearance.

“The love letters in the sand kept coming until I got on an airplane and flew back,” Don said.

They married on May 21, 1960, and Don says Carolyn still has all those letters to this day.

Don and Carolyn then had three children, two sons and a daughter.

Life took them to Des Moines and Burlington for a few years before they finally settled into their first home in Winfield in 1966 a year after their first son Jeffery was born and a year before their only daughter Kim was born. The couple had an additional son, Jason, as they raised their family in the small town.

Once the couple settled in Winfield and began to raise their family, they felt at home.

“Everybody just watches out for everyone,” Don said. “I think the relationships you discover in a small town are better and more rapidly exposed in a small town.”

According to Don, in a small town like Winfield, student athletes receive more opportunities.

“A coach sees a big, tall boy or a grill that could be a good athlete and he may go talk to her or he may say something to another member of the team and have them go recruit that person, but that wouldn't happen in a big city,” Don said.

Don and Carolyn’s children fit into Winfield as they participated as student athletes with Winfield-Mt. Union schools.

Their kids participated in football, track, wrestling, and basketball and attended different state contests during their careers.

“They were all three good athletes,” Don said.

According to Don, fitting into this tight-knit community came naturally as he served two terms with the City Council and many years as a Shriner, Carolyn participated in P.E.O., and they grew a business in the town.

“We were in business here for 40 years,” Don said.

The couple began Hagge Insurance in 1975, and continued to grow as family business where Carolyn worked as a secretary and both sons eventually joined the ranks.

When their oldest son, Jeff, graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Finance and came home for a few months, Don and Carolyn brought him into Hagge Insurance.

“Jason graduated from Upper Iowa with a degree in business and marketing,” Don shared. “He just came home and Monday morning, he showed up at the office and said ‘Dad, I don’t have a place to sit. Where’s my office?’”

According to Don and Carolyn, both of their sons still work in the business, though their daughter Kim never showed an interest in it.

While Kim did not join Hagge Insurance, she kept with the business mindset of the Hagge family through her work as the business manager for Morning Sun School District.

Even after their children grew up and began to have children of their own, Don and Carolyn stayed in Winfield.

Carolyn says she stays because, “it’s a small town.”

“This is a small town, with large ideas,” Don added.

While they enjoy the benefits of retirement, Don and Carolyn await the birth of their first great grandchild from one of their six grandchildren and keep busy visiting with neighbors, taking golf cart rides, and volunteering at the golf course.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com