Passages: Jon Hager of "Hee-Haw" dies at 67

Zantzinger’s crime recounted in Dylan song

CHARLOTTE HALL, Md. — William Zantzinger, a wealthy Maryland landowner whose fatal beating of a black barmaid was recounted in a Bob Dylan protest song of the 1960s, was buried Friday. He was 69.

Zantzinger died Jan. 3. His family did not provide further details of his death, the Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home said.

The tobacco farmer served six months and was fined $500 for manslaughter in 1963 for striking the 51-year-old barmaid with his cane for taking too long to serve him a drink. Hattie Carroll later died of a stroke. In the “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” Dylan criticized different standards of justice meted out to whites and blacks.

Jon Hager performed comedy on “Hee-Haw”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jon Hager, who performed in the musical comedy duo The Hager Twins on “Hee-Haw,” has died. He was 67.

Sam Lovullo, who produced “Hee-Haw” and was a friend of Hager’s, said that Hager was found dead in his apartment in Nashville on Friday. He apparently died in his sleep.

Lovullo said Hager had been in poor health and was depressed since his identical twin brother, Jim Hager, died in May 2008.

The twins were in the original cast of the syndicated TV show, which debuted in 1969 satirizing country life with a mixture of music and comedy.

Associated Press