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Calysta Thomas Haglage

Mrs. Calysta Thomas Haglage was born June 24, 1938 and died November 17, 2022.

Calysta was born in and spent much of her childhood in Whiteville Tennessee. Her family moved to Nashville when she was a teenager and she graduated from Litton High School where she excelled as a basketball player. Post-graduation she attended x-ray technology school at Nashville Baptist Hospital. After completion of her training, she began working as an x-ray technician for a small group of orthopedic surgeons who later became Nashville Orthopedic Association and later still Tennessee Orthopedic Association. She worked with this group for over 40 years and served as the supervisor of the x-ray department for many of those years. During that time she cared for thousands of patients and took hundreds of thousands of x-rays. Her life embodied creating and giving. She loved nothing more than giving to other people the things that she created or cooked. She was a photographer, painter (who loved everyone in her art group), keeper of the same sour-dough culture for decades, red-hat lady (tea aficionado), Miata club member, traveler, and a cook with a cookbook collection to rival any. She liked to get up early and stay busy all day. More than any of these interests though, she was a caring friend and a loving family lady.   She was preceded in death by her mother Geneva Thomas, her father Carlton Thomas, and her brothers, Carlton and Rodney Thomas.

She was a daughter, a twin, a mother, a grandmother, a wife, an aunt, and a great aunt. She adored her loving husband of over 40 years Jerome (Jerry), her son John, and her granddaughter Helen, as well as all her family.

She is survived by her husband Jerry, her son John White, her granddaughter Helen White, sister in law, Geneva Thomas; niece, Lisa and Ronnie Waynick and family, and nephew, Tony and Michelle Thomas and family.

There will not be a public memorial service as per her request. Her ashes will be inurned at the columbarium at Lebanon First Methodist Church.

LIGON & BOBO FUNERAL HOME of Lebanon (615) 444-2142   www.ligonbobo.com

Messages for the Family

  1. Vonda Gunnells says:
    Calysta was the main person who influenced me to become a rad tech. I worked under her while still in high school during our summer break. She taught me the darkroom and suggested X-ray as a profession. After graduation from Nashville General Hospital school of Radiology and 6 years working there in the ER, I returned to NOA, and started work as a tech with Calysta as my supervisor…….and friend. She was an amazing woman, so diverse in all she was interested in and her enthusiasm was infectious! So many things I did back then was because of her. She and Jerry had such a special marriage. Her legacy in X-ray lives on in the many, many students that rotated through the TOA Clarksville office, who have benefited from her wisdom through me. She was a very special lady and I was blessed to have her in my life for many years.
  2. Bonnie Thomas Seitz says:
    I loved her.