If exercise and sports contribute to increased longevity, Vivian Hagen is walking (and passing and spiking) proof of that.
Hagen, who turned 90 last October, does aerobics and yoga several times each week, as well as playing her current passion, volleyball, with other women at the Waite Park Recreation Center every Monday evening. But volleyball is just one of the myriad of sports she has engaged in throughout her life.
She grew up on a farm in Willow River, Minn., where she spent her childhood, as she recalled, “running through the meadows and woods and building snow forts in the winter.” She said her youth was spent in a close community of family, neighbors and friends. She graduated from Willow River High School (class of 1951) and played several sports there.
After graduation, she moved to Minneapolis and got a job, her first, at Honeywell. A year later she joined the company’s women’s golf league. It was also at Honeywell where she met her husband, Al Hagen, an Edison High School graduate who was an international marketing manager. The two married in 1954. They had one daughter, Susan, who also graduated from Edison. Later came two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In 1960, the Hagens built a home, from a design Vivian sketched on a napkin, in the Windom Park neighborhood, where she still resides. Husband Al died in 2009. She said, “I’m happy to have lived in this community all these years.”
Hagen has played sports all her adult life, beginning with golf and skiing, although she says that tennis was her favorite. She’s been in “numerous” exercise classes, and loved Zumba and dancing. She also enjoys doing yard work and said she’s constantly improving her home.
After seven years at Honeywell, Vivian became an “Avon Lady,” remaining one for 50 years. She recalled that she came to be involved in volleyball more than 30 years ago, almost by accident, when her friend Audrey was leaving a sales meeting they were at to go to a game. Knowing what a sports enthusiast Vivian was, Audrey invited her along.
Hagen has been playing regularly since then, and is currently in a group she described as “women 55 years and up,” but with some younger players, too. She said it’s less a team than a group, and they often trade sides of the net.
She said she’s never had a serious injury in all the sports and physical activities she’s done. As to her health, she admits to a bit of macular degeneration, but nothing that keeps her from returning serves.
About her lifetime of physicality, Hagen said, “I am active and loved all the sports I’ve played, especially volleyball. I’ve met so many great women and have formed some good friendships. I’ve had so much fun and I always look forward to the next game.”
Vivian Hagen at age 23 with a magazine ad for Honeywell, her employer. (Provided)
Hagen at her Monday evening volleyball game at the Waite Park Elementary School gym. (Mark Peterson)
