A Clearwater woman who died this week while diving offshore in the Florida Keys leaves behind a legacy in Tampa Bay.
The 68-year-old started scuba diving back in the 1970’s. During that time the underwater was a man’s world. Elizabeth “Betsy” Hoaglin changed that by started the first female dive club in Florida.
Hoaglin was always at home on the water whether it be diving, fishing, or shelling, she loved it all.
In 1972, she tried to join her husband’s diving club but the answer was no. Hoaglins daughter April said that’s when her mother decided to start her own club.
"I believe she just got a bunch of other girls that weren't allowed to dive with their husbands,” said April Hoaglin, Betsy’s daughter. “They got together and said we're going to start our own club."
Shortly after the “Sea Bunnies” was born. It was the first all-female dive club in Florida. Hundreds of Bay area women have joined over the years and the club is still going strong.
Members were saddened to hear the news their founder had died while diving this week in the Florida Keys. One of those members is Hoaglin’s sister, a woman who has always held her own in fishing competitions with Hoaglin over the years.
“I lost my best friend, I lost my boss,” said Holly Wagner, Hoaglin’s sister. “She told me what do my whole life."
Wagner said it was her sister’s energy that kept the “Sea Bunnies” diving and having fun." She was the one who kept it going, she was the leader,” said Wagner. “She was the mamma Sea Bunnie."
With Hoaglin’s experience her family knew when they got the awful call from the Keys, that this was not a scuba accident. It was later determined to be a heart condition.
“My father has been deceased for a couple of years and those two were inseparable, especially when it came to boating and diving,” said April Hoaglin. “I believe that she died doing what she loved and I believe he carried her home.”
Hoaglin not only founded the “Sea Bunnies” she ran her own medical staffing and x-ray company. She provided free care to animals rescued by Clearwater Marine Aquarium and the Sea Bird Sanctuary.
Hoaglin’s lifelong love for the Gulf lives on in the club she founded 42 years ago and in her Clearwater family who are still at home on the water.
Services for Hoaglin are being held Tuesday at St. Brendans in Clearwater.
