Alice Hodge

Alice Jean Arden Hodge, the grande dame of the Beaverkill and member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic track team, passed away peacefully and without pain at her home in Craig-e-Clare on Wednesday, February 29. She was 97.

Alice was born in Philadelphia on July 23, 1914, the daughter of Thomas Ray and Jean Arden. Her father was a well-known inventor who held over 400 patents. Alice grew up on Long Island, earning ten athletic letters at Baldwin High School and won the Amateur Athletic Union national championships in the high jump in 1933 and 1934, along the way breaking the American record held by Babe Didrikson. Alice's record would stand for more than 20 years. She was also the top female long jumper in the country.

Alice finished second at the 1936 Olympic trials in Proovidence, RI, earning a place on the team and a featured photo in Bernarr McFadden's Physical Culture magazine over the caption "the body beautiful." She traveled to Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympics, where she finished eighth in the high jump. Her Olympic experience enabled her to meet a wide range of international celebrities from Adolph Hitler to Jesse Owens, and in fact she became lifelong friends with Owens and his family. Upon her return to New York after the Berlin games, she was feted with a tickertape parade and a reception hosted by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. She handled it all with her characteristic modesty.

It was while playing basketball on a semi-professional travelling team known as the Long Island Ducklings that Alice met her soul mate, Russell V. Hodge later in 1936. The Ducklings were booked for a game against the Liberty Emeralds at the Laurels Country Club in Sackett Lake that December, and the two jumped center to start the contest. "I came down on his back and I've been there ever since," Alice once told an interviewer. The Emeralds won the game and Russ Hodge won the hand of the opposing team's star. They were married the following year.The couple eventually settled above Roscoe and operated a dairy farm, a furniture store and a sand and gravel business while raising three children. The Hodges were married for 64 years, until Russ's death in 2001 at the age of 91. When her son Russell Arden "Rusty" Hodge competed in the decathlon in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the two became the first mother-son Olympic duo in American history, a distinction they hold to this day. That fact was memorialized as part of the U.S. Olympians Rings of Fame monument, which was dedicated at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Alice remained active and vibrant throughout her life, working out three days a week at the family's Body and Soul Fitness Center and scuba diving in the Caribbean. She also loved to jet-ski with her Caribbean neighbors, including Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

Alice is survived by her two sons, Russell Arden Hodge and his wife Pam of Roscoe and James Raymond Hodge and his wife Peggy of Palo Alto, CA, as well as 11 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, Russell V. Hodge and her daughter, Laura Lee Hodge Malloy.

Visitation will be Sunday, March 11, 2012 from 2 - 4 PM in the Harris Funeral Home Railroad Ave. Roscoe, NY.

A time of reflection on Alice's life will be at 4 PM in the funeral home.

Burial will be private in the Beaverkill Cemetery, Beaverkill, NY.

Tax deductible donations on behalf of Alice can be sent to Olympians for Olympians Relief Fund (OORF) c/o Cindy Stinger, Treasurer, 1 Olympic Plaza, Colorado Springs, CO 80906.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the Harris Funeral Home Railroad Avenue, Roscoe, NY. 607-498-4929 or 845-439-5200 www.Harris-FH.com