Vivian "Pauline" Hodges

Vivian Pauline Hodges was born on September 20, 1929, to Paul Wright Arnett and Dora Wilson Arnett in Liberal, Kansas. She was a Dust Bowl survivor. However, she led an interesting and productive life as a wife, parent, author, educator, historian and speaker.
She is survived by her son Mark and his wife Sharon, her daughter-in-law Jeri, three grandchildren, ten great-grand children and three great-great grandchildren. Her son Brent preceeded her passing in 2024 as did one grandson Clayton in 2019.
When Pauline was making speeches during 2012-2013 to promote the Ken Burns film about the Dust Bowl, her first sentence was always, " I was born at a fine time, 1929, a month before the Stock Market Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression, as well as 2 years before The beginning of the Dust Bowl, and to wheat farmers in Beaver County, Oklahoma!"
Although her family lost their farm due to the bank's foreclosure in the Dust Bowl, they survived as her father got a job with the WPA paving roads in the area. Consequently, Pauline began her education in a one room school in Floris, Oklahoma, followed by two years at Turpin, Oklahoma, and when she was in the fourth grade through high school at Forgan, Oklahoma, graduating in 1947. Pauline managed to get a scholarship and two jobs at the Panhandle A & M College (now Panhandle State University) so she could afford to go to college, which her parents insisted on her doing, although neither of them had a high school diploma. They had taught Pauline to read and write before she was old enough to go to school and her first book to read was Tom Sawyer! They bought boxes of books at farm foreclosures sales before they lost their own farm, so Pauline had something to read (at $0.25 a box, a bargain) and could learn more!
In 1947 Pauline married Albert Eugene Hodges, and they moved to Goodwell, OK, where they attended the college and worked for the college. Upon their graduation, they moved to Hodges Ranch near Forgan and Beaver.
During those ranching years Albert Brent (1949) joined them, followed by Mark Eugene (1953), to their parents' pride and joy! Both sons would grow up on the ranch and graduate from Forgan High and Panhandle A & M as their parents had done!
Pauline began teaching school in 1956. She fell in love with her new job at Forgan High School, which she did while also ranching and rearing her two boys. At the school she taught English, Speech, French, coached the Debate Team, ran the Library, and produced two plays a year, of course she was young then! She loved teaching so much that she spent 36 years in public schools at Forgan; Liberal Kansas; Douglas County, Colorado, then as a professor at Colorado State University and later at Oklahoma Panhandle State University (her alma mater). She also served as a consultant to English Departments in public schools for 40 years and even taught in a seminar at Oxford University in England. She served as an administrator in Jefferson County schools in Denver, as well as an author and consultant to five of the largest textbook publishers in the U.S.A.
Although Pauline lived an interesting and productive life, she said that in addition to her family times, the most enjoyable events were these:
1. Her many years teaching, especially Forgan, even teaching children and grandchildren of her first students!
2. Writing books and articles about the unique history of Beaver County, as well as serving on the Board of Directors for the Jones and Plummer Trail Museum and the No Man's Land Museum.
3. Working with professional organizations such as the National Rural Education Association, for which she served as their National President; the National Council of Teachers of English and the Colorado Language Arts Society.
4. Receiving the Oklahoma Medal for Secondary Teaching in 1993.
5. Serving as a researcher and speaker for the Ken Burns film about the Dust Bowl. But the best time was when she retired and spent time with her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and even great- great grandchildren.
Public visitation will take place on Tuesday, June 17th, from 1-8pm. The family will receive friends 5-7pm.
Funeral service will take place on Wednesday, June 18th, at 2pm at McNeil's Funeral Service.