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Maripat Hagen

Maripat Nerlin Hagen, Billings, passed away peacefully after a short illness April 10, 2017 surrounded by her family.

Maripat was born to Andy and Flo Nerlin on March 15, 1937 in a log home with no electricity on Poverty Flat Road of rural Joliet. There, she and her siblings wandered the nearby hills playing cowboys and Indians, helping their dad with farm chores, swimming in Elbow Creek, and making monthly family trips to Billings, where she would search for the latest pop tune to learn on the family piano.

Her mother was a former school teacher and taught all of her children to read and write at a very early age; thus Maripat skipped first grade and entered second grade at the nearby country school. She graduated from Fromberg High School, Class of 1954. That summer she entered Eastern Montana College to pursue an elementary teaching degree. While attending college she met Kerel Hagen and they were married June 5, 1955 in Billings. She began her teaching career at Huntley Project with stops in Wolf Point, Cayuse Prairie, Martin City, Olney, and Columbia Falls, teaching fourth graders at Glacier Gateway. Maripat retired from teaching in 2001.

She was an exceptional seamstress — she made many loud and vibrant sport coats for Kerel to wear to school, and matching dresses for herself and her daughters to wear on Easter Sunday.

She became a remarkable and gifted musician. She started taking piano lessons at an early age; but she preferred to teach herself how to play by ear. She could listen to a tune on the radio and play her own lively rendition impeccably well on her first try.

She was born into a family that loved and appreciated the Masonic traditions. As a young girl, she joined the Order of Rainbow for Girls and continued her love for the Masonic Order with memberships in the Order of Eastern Star and the Billings chapter of the Daughters of the Nile. She served in many capacities and with her friends she criss-crossed the state attending many meetings and seeing friends.

During retirement, she took up genealogy and found a few of her long-lost roots. She assisted her sister, Val, with a couple of family history books for the next generations to enjoy.

She and Kerel raised their family at the base of Columbia Mountain with values of hard work and to ride horses in the backcountry. They are: Mark and Beth Hagen, Joliet; Keith Hagen, Billings; Ladona and Wes Fopma, Sioux Center, Iowa; and Karla Hagen, Centennial, Colorado. She is also survived by her grandchildren: Kevin Fopma, Centennial, Colorado; Kyle Fopma, Sioux Center, Iowa; and Taylor Hagen, Billings; her siblings: Junior Nerlin, Joliet; Val and Joe Hillers, Coupeville, Washington; Lynn and Duane Whitmer, Cody, Wyoming; and Jim and Peggy Nerlin, Denver, Colorado; her newly found sister Shirley Schilleriff, Federal Way, Washington; her in-laws: Deloris Nerlin, Bozeman; Dean and Clariss Hagen; and Norman and Mary Ann Hagen, all of Columbia Falls. She will also be missed by many nieces, nephews, teaching colleagues, and numerous friends across Montana.

Those gone before her are her parents Andy and Flo Nerlin; her husband, Kerel Hagen (1985); her brother, Dale Nerlin (2014); her mother-in-law, Ella Hagen Jensen; and her in-laws Karen Nerlin, Evie Nerlin, Inez and Guy Ault, and Chester and Phyllis Hagen.

In lieu of flowers and in her honor, memorials may be made to Cornelius Hedges Chapter No. 32, O.E.S., Norma Berry, Secretary, P. O. Box 111, Bridger, MT 59014 or Riverstone Hospice Health Center, P.O. Box 1562, Billings, MT 59103.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. Memories and condolences may be shared with the family at www.dahlfuneralchapel.com.