Donna (Case) Hagan Zeller, 98, passed away, Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at Highland Park Care Center in Alliance, NE. Memorial services will be Thursday, July 21, 2022 at 10:30 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church. Inurnment will be in the Alliance Cemetery. Memorials may be given to Friends of the Library or PAWS (Providing Animals With Shelter.) Online condolences may be left at www.batesgould.com with Bates-Gould Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.
It was a hot August day and Eva (Roberts) and Darriel “Red” Case had gone to a newly purchased ranch for a harvest with Luva (Eva’s sister) and Frank Messersmith. They were still living without real windows in a soddy that was on the ranch when they bought it. With four little boys, including a 3-month-old there was plenty of work for all, but Eva’s first child decided it was a great day to make her entrance into the world on August 13, 1923. The ladies hung the blanket on the clothes line to let the guys know it was time to get back to the house.
Then came the debate- which way to go- Alliance was closer but the road was much worse than the one to Antioch AND Red’s folks lived in Antioch. So Antioch won and Grandma’s midwife experience came in mighty handy but the doctor did arrive just before Donna, because he (according to Eva) couldn’t spell Donna’s middle name was Gene. It was Jean on every other record besides the birth certificate until she was graduating high school discovered the delightful truth and remained Gene for ever afterward!
Donna always believed she lived in the best possible times. She loved life and saw the beginnings of both air travel and auto travel having either didn’t stop her – her four legs took her to the Missouri market just fine until the owners, abetted by her parents, stopped thinking her visits were fun! Heat came from iron cook stoves, meltingly delicious rolls raised perfectly (usually), fast foods they weren’t, but lots of gardens made us healthy.
Donna loved school, read as many books as the library would let her check out, played dolls and jacks, learned to count to twelve in Swedish taught by Violet Fingal and her Dad so she could have a square of sugar, entered the doll clothes sewing contests that J.C. Penney put on every Christmas, lived for visits to the Messersmith ranch and all the good times with the seven kids riding Old Star (a large work horse who loved all and let seven of the kids ride him at once), played cards which the parents could see taught us arithmetic, rode the junk cart with the other kids from the block – it was a one horse job driven by Hayes Chandler and greatly enjoyed by both driver and passengers,
She started taking piano lessons when she was eight. After the usual reluctance to practice during her second year of lessons, she grew to love the piano and music. The year she was starting high school, Val Hill came to Alliance and the newspaper said he wanted string instrument learners as well as those who had a little experience. She went to the high school and told him she wanted to play a viola. He couldn’t believe that anyone really wanted to play the viola. So she was able to play a school instrument for all four years devoting hours to the orchestra and getting to go to Colorado Springs for the piano contest in her sophomore year. Her last accompanist experience was for the Swinging Seniors.
Her jobs were loved starting with selling hosiery at Montgomery Ward, going on to be the cashier. The war came along and after spending a few weeks in Chicago going to The Gregg Business College, she returned to Alliance and went to work for the air base hospital. She met her first husband there and they were married in August of 1943. The air force made you quit when you were 5 months pregnant. So that was the end of working until after the war. They returned to Alliance and her husband, Bob Hagen, went to work for Cover-Jones Motor Company, their first child was born in Alliance and at six months became very ill with the blood conflict with Donna’s negative blood. A miracle allowed them to take her to Children’s Hospital in Denver where they treated her symptoms because at that time no one knew for sure about the disease. She was to be the only child they had though there were other pregnancies.
Donna went on to work for the City Light and Water Office, the City Clerk’s office, then the ski factory for True Temper, later for attorney, Leo Bayer. Their daughter had gone to Denver and appeared to be there for life so they decided to move. Donna went to work for the city of Aurora as an accountant. It was an interesting job at an interesting time of the city’s growth. She retired in 1975 and they moved back to Alliance.
Her accounting work had led to getting a listing of Aurora’s fixed assets. Alliance was needing to have that done and Paul Phaneuf talked to Donna about undertaking it. She spent five years hunting through old minutes and other records but finally came up with a usable listing of the assets. That led her to deciding to run for City Council. She was elected twice, served as Mayor briefly, and enjoyed the experience
After her second retirement she was elected the Grand Marshall for Heritage Days. She said “No Miss America was ever prouder”. She loved Alliance and its people always.
In 2005, a 4-class reunion for Alliance High attracted a classmate who had been living in Utah during most of his working life. Bob Zeller called Donna in August of that year and a telephone courtship resulted. By December she was interested and when he suggested coming to Alliance to get better acquainted in February she said yes. He proposed on Valentine’s Day and she said yes tentatively. She wanted to get to know his 3 children better. It worked very well and they were married in June 2005. Bob passed away in 2012. Bob Hagen had passed away in 1993, and her daughter Diana passed away in 2016.
She is survived by her granddaughter, Maria Martinez Lekvin and her five children, Daniella, Brieanna, Brian, Paul, and Aiden; her step-daughter, Katherine Niessen of Minneapolis, Minnesota and her daughters, Debbie and Lynda (Bill) of Dalton, Georgia; her husband Robert Zeller’s children, Robert (LaDonna), Ronald (Barbara) and daughter, Carolyn (J.P) Mann, all of Vernal UT; her sister, Shirley Perez, of McCook; a number of nieces and nephews, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren.