Emmett Hodgkins

LEE -- Emmett J. Hodgkins, 79, of Trailwater Drive, Antioch, Tenn., a native of Lee, died Saturday at Good Samaritan Care Center in Antioch. He was the father of former state Rep. Christopher Hodgkins of Lee.

Born Oct. 22, 1924, son of Emmett and Janet Voight Hodgkins, he was a 1942 graduate of Lee High School and from the University of Denver in 1951.

An Army veteran of World War II, he served in the Medical Corps for three years in the European theater and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

A hotel manager for most of his career, Mr. Hodgkins was a founder of the Culinary Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and created a model hotel and hospitality program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He was also the manager of the Yellowstone Inn at Yellowstone National Park and the Santa Rita in Tucson, Ariz. He taught hotel and restaurant management at the State University of New York at Delhi and, upon retirement, he was a professor of hotel management at Tennessee State University.

Besides his son, he leaves his wife, Barbara M. Hodgkins; two daughters, Janet Burch of Lee and Vernice Aure of Crookston, Minn.; two other sons, Michael Hodgkins of Falls Village, Conn., and Daniel Hodgkins of Indianapolis, 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Another son, Kevin Hodgkins, is deceased.