Alicia Ann Bell Hodges

Alicia Ann Bell Hodges, 94, passed away on September 16, 2025, after a battle with acute myloid leukemia. She was born on August 19, 1931 in Memphis, TN, to the late A.T. and Sarah Bell. She grew up in Lepanto, AR, and attended Hendrix College in Conway, AR, and graduated from Georgia State University with a Masters in Early Childhood Education. She was employed by Dekalb County schools for 4 years where she taught Early Childhood Education to children with learning disabilities.
While at Hendrix College, she met and married Walter L. Hodges on June 5, 1952. They lived in Silver Springs, MD, Bloomington, IN, Little Rock, AR, and moved to Atlanta in 1972 where Walter was a professor of Early Childhood Education at GSU.
After Walter retired from GSU, he and Alicia volunteered at The Mountain camp and Conference Center in Highland, NC in the summer months, where they worked with Senior High youth. In 1974, Walter and Alicia joined the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta where they volunteered to tutor children at the John Hope Elementary School. They also sponsored the Earthkeepers Outdoor Education Program for 5th graders at Hope Elementary. The culmination of this program was to take 4 different classes from Hope Elem. to The Mountain for a week of hands-on study in the campgrounds. The first time many of the children had been outside Atlanta, much less into a forested area. The children loved the week, and The Mountain staff was well prepared to teach the program.
In addition to their volunteer work, Alicia and Walt traveled to N. Ireland to visit relatives; to Sweden to visit a friend; asks Brazil and Chile to experience life in the jungles.
Alicia is survived by a brother, A.T.Bell Jr; first cousin Catherine Cox; children, Michael, Leanne and Cherie Hodges; and grandchildren, Daniel and Caleigh O’Keefe and Mira Hodges.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Atlanta Community Food Bank.