Helen Jane McGough Wagar

Fairborn, Ohio – Jane Wagar age 93 formerly of West Milton, Ohio, passed away of natural causes Tuesday, July 18 at the Elmcroft Assisted Living Center in Fairborn.

Born on February 7, 1924 in Belmont, Ohio, Jane McGough graduated from high school and went to work as a teletype operator at Wright Field where she met a teletype repairman about to join the US Army in 1942 and promised to write to him while he was overseas. Immediately upon his return from the war in late 1945 he presented her with an engagement ring and they were married just a few weeks later on December 21, 1945, when she became Mrs. Wayne Wagar.

Jane went on to be the mother of 5, the grandmother of 5 and the great grandmother of 12 children. She was a wife, a seamstress, a homemaker, a tutor, a quilter and her husband’s best friend. She was a Cub Scout den mother, a small town newspaper editor and the private secretary to the founder of Huffy Bicycles. She was a cook, a baker, a knitter, a square dancer and she traveled by car and camped all over the USA with her husband and 5 children fixing dinners in the dark on a Coleman camp stove in the middle of nowhere. At the age of 60 plus she did a multi-day float trip down the San Juan River with her husband in spite of the fact she never learned to swim and was afraid of the water. She became a full time caretaker when her husband was diagnosed with MS, without complaint and with great compassion and remained his best friend and lover until his passing in 2011.

Jane was preceded in death by her parents Harry and Helen McGough; a sister Dorothy Blackford, two brothers; Thomas Virgil and William McGough and her beloved husband Wayne J. Wagar.

She is survived by 5 children; son Phil and wife Barbara Nartker Wagar of Bellbrook, Ohio; son Ken and wife Vickie Sparks Wagar of Winter Haven, FL; son Bill and wife Barbara Belton Wagar of Flagstaff, Arizona; daughter Kathryn and husband Danny R. Wright of Castle Rock, CO and son Dick and wife Deb Oexmann of Troy, Ohio.

“Gram” Wagar is also survived by 5 grandchildren: Katara Wagar Hause and husband Chad Hause of Farmington Hills, MI; Keith Wagar and wife Jennifer Evans Wagar of Indianapolis, IN; Joe Wagar of Austin, TX; Lisa Wagar of Nashville, TN and Bethany Wagar Welborn and husband Bryan Welborn of Jackson, TN. She was also blessed with 12 great grandchildren: Zachary Teitsma; Logan Hause; Delaney, Berkley, Cordelia, Wolfgang, Thornton, Almanzo, Evangeline and Nešo Wagar; and Briony and Beckett Welborn.

Family will receive friends for an informal celebration of life on Friday, August 4 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Brukner Nature Center, 5995 Horseshoe Bend Road, Troy, Ohio. A private, family only commitment ceremony will follow on Saturday morning August 5th. Arrangements are in care of Hale-Sarver Family Funeral Home, West Milton. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations in Jane Wagar’s name to The Brukner Nature Center in Troy, Ohio.  Online memories 

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