Gladys Allene Hanna Hazeltine was raised in Walworth, Wisconsin. After high school, she enrolled at Whitewater Teachers College (now the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater). Her major was elementary education, and she became a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma.
After earning her degree, she married Donald Roger Hazeltine in 1949. She began her career teaching first graders in Beloit, Wisconsin.
In 1953, they moved to Joliet, Illinois, and her primary focus became raising her family, although she occasionally served as a substitute teacher. Six years later, the Hazeltines moved to Evansville, Indiana, where her husband and a friend became McDonald’s franchisees. Hazeltine helped support the family business taking on some administrative and community focused duties.
She was instrumental in establishing a Tri Sigma chapter at the University of Southern Indiana, which at that time was called Indiana State University – Evansville. Hazeltine also served as an advisor to the chapter.
Evansville Press, October 27, 1968
She was also an active alumna and when she and her husband moved to Florida permanently in 1993, she was a charter member of the Sarasota-Manatee Alumnae Chapter which was chartered on May 9, 1997. She supported the Tri Sigma Foundation.
She was involved in community, church and charitable organizations wherever she lived.
2016
In 1997, the Hazeltines set a presidential scholarship endowment at the University of Southern Indiana. A few years later, they gave another $1 million unrestricted gift to the university. In 2000, the Hazeltines were honored with honorary doctor of laws degrees.
Gladys Allene Hanna Hazeltine died on February 23, 2023 at the age of 95.
