Bobbie Ruth Hodges
Bobbie Ruth Hodges died on Sunday, May 22, 2016.
She was born June 2, 1923 in Chattanooga to postal carrier Robert Murray Hodges and Ruth Evans Hodges and named Mary Ruth Hodges. By school age, “Mary Ruth” had become “Bobbie Ruth” as she attended Ridgedale Grammar, then Brainerd Jr. High, and then Central High, Class of 1941.
After graduation, Ms. Hodges worked as a stenographer at Harris & Hogshead through World War II and in 1946 entered East Tennessee State College in Johnson City, Tn. At ETSC, she was selected to Who’s Who her senior year based on her many extra-curricular activities and leadership positions. She graduated in 1950 with a BA in English. She then earned a master’s degree from George Peabody College in Nashville. Ms. Hodges began her career at Bradley Central teaching English, then came to Central in Chattanooga in the fall of 1951 as an English teacher. Her subsequent 18 years at Central also included teaching history and serving as a guidance counselor.
Ms. Hodges moved to Hixson High in the fall of 1969 (as Old Central moved to Harrison), where she taught English and history for another 19 years before retiring at the end of the 1987-88 school year to take care of her mother. While teaching at Hixson she was chairman of the Social Studies Department. During her 38-year teaching career she won two Evans Foundation Master Teacher Awards (at Central High in 1965 and at Hixson High in 1975), and the Teacher’s Medal from Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge in 1968. In 1974 she received the Teacher of the Year Award from the Chattanooga Civitan Club. In 1987 she received the Laura Handley Brock Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1999 she received the Central High School Distinguished Alumni Award. Ms. Hodges retired to her Idlewild Avenue home where she lived until moving to an apartment in East Ridge and then to Elmcroft at Shallowford in recent years. Bobbie Ruth Hodges represented the Old Central faculty as the oldest surviving faculty member at the Historical Marker Dedication on August 4, 2012.
She was a member of Brainerd Presbyterian Church, E.P.C., a 50-year member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, a founder and Life Member of the Chattanooga Chapter of Freedom’s Foundationat Valley Forge, PA, a Life member of the National Education Association, a member of the Tennessee Retired Teachers’ Association and the Hamilton County Retired Teachers’ Association. For a number of years she was a Red Cross volunteer at Parkridge Hospital. She also volunteered at Brainerd Presbyterian Church in the office.
In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to Bethel Bible Village Children’s Home or to Bible in the Schools.
She is survived by several cousins and her church family.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 25, at the East Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, 404 South Moore Road with the Reverend Ronald Ragon and the Reverend Jonathan Schwartz officiating. Burial will be in Forest Hills Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 9–11 a.m. on Wednesday at the funeral home.
Please share your thoughts and memories at www.ChattanoogaEastChapel.com.