Pauline Hopkins Wagner

A Memorial Service for Mrs. Pauline Hopkins Wagner, 104, of Jefferson, Texas will be held Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 3:00pm at the Jefferson Academy S.D.A. Church with Pastor John Taylor officiating and under the direction of Haggard Funeral Home.

Mrs. Wagner was born December 28, 1913 in Linden, Texas to Reese Hopkins and Sally Hood in Collin County, Texas and passed away May 18, 2018 in Jefferson, Texas.  Both parents were teachers and dedicated themselves to support Pauline's education and career.  When she was four years old, her father came to teach at the Berea School in Jefferson, Texas now Jefferson Christian Academy.  Pauline completed elementary and high school there and went on to earn a teaching certificate from Southwestern Junior College (now Southwestern Adventist University) and the B.S. in Teaching from Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska.  She did post-graduate work at Pacific Union University, Angwin, California and completed her M.A. in Education from the State Teachers College, Tempe, Arizona.  She dedicated her entire teaching career to the Seventh-Day Adventist Education System at the elementary and high school levels.  She started at age 21 in Texarkana, Texas and continued to serve schools in California, Arizona, Maryland, Virginia and Texas with her longest tenure as Assistant Principal on the J.N. Andrews School in Takoma Park, Maryland.  In 1951, she married Mr. Henry Wagner, a construction and structural senior inspector for the US Department of Veterans Affairs.  Pauline and Henry moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia where Pauline served as Principal, Norfolk-Tidewater Academy.  Upon Henry's unexpected death in Virginia, Pauline returned to Texas and continued teaching in Jefferson for 4 more years to complete 40 years of uninterrupted service.  At 62, she turned to an artistic passion she learned from her mother:  China and oil painting.  Her last paid art commission work was a collector's 14-place china set (124 pieces) painted and fired by herself and shipped just before her 98th birthday.  She leaves four generations of former students who claim she inspired them to excellence in careers in health, engineering, law, public administration, civil service, and ministry in the church she loved.  She outlived most of her peers and is survived by many cousins who call her "Aunt" and will miss her example, rich sense of humor and consistent encouragement and love.

Memorial donations can be made to Jefferson Christian Academy - 3060 FM 728 Jefferson, Texas 75657.

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