Garden club dedicates site at Nothern in honor of Toni Hagener

A local garden club this week honored Antoinette "Toni" Hagener, a local political and community leader who helped form the club in 2009.

Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club Tuesday dedicated a sundial, plaque, bench and piece of land planted with the state grass, bluebunch wheatgrass, to honor Hagener near the entrance to Montana State University-Northern's Hagener Science Center, which was named for Lou Hagener, her husband and a longtime Northern science professor and community supporter himself.

Lou and Toni Hagener moved to Havre in 1948 so he could take a job at then-Northern Montana College, after they met while both attending the University of Denver.

Toni Hagener, who taught high school science in Denver before they moved to Havre, and her husband were extremely active at Northern and in the community.

She established the quality testing lab at Havre's Vita-Rich Dairy in the early 1950s, one of the first dairy-level testing labs in the state.

She served on numerous boards and groups and was the first curator of the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum and was a major factor in the development of Hill County's Wahkpa Chu'gn Buffalo Jump, building the original interpretation buildings at Wahkpa Chu'gn. She earned national recognition for her work, and also was appointed to the Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees, serving three terms on the board and as board chair from 1977-79.

The Louis and Antoinette Hagener Museum of the North Montana Plains Indian in Northern's Vande Bogart Library opened in 2014, housing many original Native American artifacts previously housed with other exhibits Lou Hagener curated for many years in Northern's math and science building now named after him.

Lou and Toni Hagener over the years gave many tours of the exhibits in the math science building.

Toni Hagener also was active politically, serving on the local school board, as a Hill County commissioner, as president of the Montana Association of Counties - including being an active member of the National Association of Counties - and as a state representative in the Legislature.

Hagener was a major player in getting bluebunch wheatgrass named as the state grass before she was elected to the Legislature.

She also was active in many service organizations and volunteered for many organizations throughout the years. She received numerous honors and awards for her community activities and involvement in government.

Hagener was a frequent speaker and wrote many articles on local history and co-authored several booklets with her husband including a history of Northern Montana College and a 100-year review of the city of Havre's government, as well as helping produce "Grits, Guts and Gusto," the local history of Hill County produced in 1976 by the Hill County Bicentennial Committee.

She was one of the charter members of Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club, which she helped reorganize and name in 2009, taking the name from a past garden club organized in 1942.

Hagener died March 21, 2017, at the age of 90.