Bonnie Hagstrum
July 31, 1981-June 23, 2019
Menlo Park, California
Bonnie C. Hagstrum, 100, a 25-year resident of Menlo Park, died on June 23, 2019. Her husband, Homer D. Hagstrum, and brother, George D. Cairns, predeceased her.
Bonnie grew up in Woodstock, Illinois, and was the great-great granddaughter of early settlers in the region. Many of her early memories centered on the wonderful holiday meals she shared at her grandparent’s farm. She graduated from Woodstock High School and went on to study fashion and design at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. She and her friend Pembroke Squires traveled to his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, to open a successful women’s wear boutique. Their business, however, ended with the start of WWII. Bonnie then moved back East to work, first at the Art Department at the College of William and Mary where she made many life-long friends, and later in the fashion industry in New York City.
In 1948, Bonnie married Homer Hagstrum, an experimental physicist at Bell Labs, then in NYC, and within a few years they moved to the suburbs of Summit, NJ. While living in Summit, Bonnie studied sculpture in NYC at the Museum of Modern Art and with Jose and Laurie Goulet. In the 1970s, Bonnie shared a studio on Union Square with a group of fellow women artists, who often showed their works in stone together. As well as being a sculptor, Bonnie was an excellent cook, and regularly hosted dinner parties for a close group of Bell Labs colleagues and families. Bonnie and Homer delighted in music, food, fine art and dance, so afternoons and evenings were frequently spent in NYC with their children.
An avid tennis player from childhood, Bonnie often played in tournaments at a local club in Summit, and continued playing with friends in California. She and Homer enjoyed hiking in the summer, first in the high Sierras and later, for nearly 30 years, in the Canadian Rockies of Yoho National Park. Bonnie enjoyed traveling and sometimes included art in her travels. She sketched family and friends at the beach, sculpted marble in Pietrasanta, Italy, and studied ink wash painting while in Japan with Homer.
After Homer retired, he and Bonnie moved to the SF Bay Area to be closer to their children and old friends. Newly in California, Bonnie established a studio in Belmont and later put on art shows with Joanne Beasley, a painter, at Joanne’s home in Palo Alto. Their joint shows were part of the Peninsula Open Studios annual event. After Joanne’s premature death, Bonnie set up a home studio and continued to sculpt as long she was able to.
Bonnie is survived by her daughter, Melissa; son, Jonathan (Kate Paddock); granddaughter, Maya Hagstrum; cousin Barbara Jean Andreas; and many nieces, nephews and younger cousins.
Tags: arts/media
