When "Hee Haw" entertainers THE HAGER TWINS perform, it's not just another show for the comedic brothers - it's a homecoming.  "Everywhere we perform is like coming home", says Jon Hager, who with his twin brother Jim, were raised in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge. It's a lot of fun trying to tell the twins apart.  Not only do the brothers look and sound identical, but their ad-lib humor is quick, spontaneous and razor-sharp.  For example, when asked about their childhood, one brother starts answering the question, but they both finish it!  Jim and I were adopted, explains Jon.  "Our late father, Jack, was a Florida Methodist minister, and our mother Frances, is a retired Mississippi school teacher.  Dad had a church on the south side of Chicago when we were very little".  Jim interjects,  "It was near the Stockyards".  "Ahhh!" they laughingly conclude in unison.  "So, THAT'S where we got our first whiff of country upbringing".  Besides a natural flair for comedy, the Hager Twins realized early on they had a talent for singing.  "Singing in the church choir helped nurture this God-given talent", says Jim. By the time they were in high school, the Hager Twins were regular performers on a weekly Saturday morning television show for teens on WGN-TV in Chicago.  After college, the twins both served in the Army, where they performed for Officers' and NCO clubs in the United States and Europe.  Following their discharge, the twins moved to California.  There they became regular players with The Carpenters, The Christy Minstrels, John Denver, Steve Martin and Kenny Rogers at Randy Sparks' Los Angeles nightclub, "Ledbetters".  Their big break came when country icon Buck Owens attended one of their shows at Disneyland and signed the twins to a management, recording and booking contract in less than a week.  "We traveled for years opening shows for Buck", Jon says.  "We also got to open for some of the other greats like Tex Ritter, Wynn Stewart, Billie Jo Spears and Lefty Frizzell.  We learned so much from them, and we loved them all".  The Hager Twins were introduced to millions of viewers when they became regular cast members on the No. 1 syndicated television show of all time - "Hee Haw!   "We were on 'Hee Haw' from the very first show in 1969 until we left 19 years later in 1988", Jim says.  "The success of 'Hee Haw', Jon adds, is that the cast members loved and supported each other.  Not only did we put our hearts and souls into the program, we also leaned how to laugh at ourselves".  The Hager Twins have provided audiences with more than three decades of smiles, laughter and music.  They both agree that they have been blessed and are grateful that they can do, what they do, and for all the wonderful people God has brought into their lives. 

Many Thanks to Tamela Meredith Partridge