Jill Wagner

Jill Hisey Wagner, a Sierra Madre resident for more than 70 years, passed away Aug. 3 at the British Homes retirement community in Sierra Madre. She was 91.

Jill was active with her husband, Howard, in the annual Sierra Madre Arts Festival for many years and was active in fund-raising campaigns for the Sierra Madre Public Library when Howard was a member of the library’s Board of Trustees.

Jill was born to Jack Edward Zimmerman and Emily Elizabeth Delancey on Feb. 4,1934 in Alameda, Calif. Her father abandoned the family when she was about 3 years old. While her mother worked as a secretary, her grandparents, John and Emily Delancey, helped raise her.

Her mother met and married Jean Hisey in 1938, and the family soon moved to Pasadena. Jill attended public schools and graduated from Pasadena City College. She worked briefly in a department store before she met Howard Wagner. They married in 1953 and Jill became a homemaker.

Howard passed away in 2006, and a brother, Jack Hisey, died in 2017. She is survived by a sister, Judith Hisey Cutler, of Apple Valley.

She is also survived by one son and two daughters, Rob Wagner of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Susannah Tomlin of Pasadena; and Lisa Reed, also of Pasadena. Daughter-in-law Sabria Jawhar and son-in-law Brad Tomlin also survive her.

In addition, she is survived by nine grandchildren: Nicholas Wagner of Hollywood, and Selena Moffett and Danielle Small both of Lodi; Emily and Jude Wagner, of Riyadh; Ian Tomlin (Rayna Snow White-Tomlin) of Pasadena, Cory Macy of Norco, Alexander Reed (Katelyn Reed) of Valencia, and Christopher Reed of Kentucky. Surviving great-grandchildren are Kayden and Hudson Siegmund of Lodi; and Ray, Ryan, Frederick and Cecilia Small of Modesto.

There will be no services. Burial of her cremated remains will be at the Episcopal Church of Ascension, Sierra Madre.