She garnered a measure of fame in March 2012 when her review[2] of a new Olive Garden restaurant in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was noticed by online news aggregators and became an overnight sensation among both critics and admirers.
Anthony Bourdain announced plans to collaborate with Hagerty and subsequently published and wrote a foreword for her 2013 book Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews.
The review was overall positive, stating that "the chicken Alfredo ($10.95) was warm and comforting on a cold day," and calling the Olive Garden "the largest and most beautiful restaurant now operating in Grand Forks.
[15][16][17] Her son James R. Hagerty, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, wrote an article in that newspaper about her newfound fame.
In addition to her son (James), she and her husband had two daughters, Gail Hagerty (born 1953), presiding judge of the South Central Judicial District of North Dakota, chambered in Bismarck (whose husband Dale Sandstrom is a justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court) and Carol Werner (1954–2011), a lawyer.