Elizabeth Hodges

Elizabeth Sarah Hodges, 100 , beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother, passed away in Albuquerque, NM on August 12, 2018. Born in Berlin, New Hampshire on September 4, 1917, to Abraham and Takla Rozek, Libby, as she was known, was the last surviving sibling of nine brothers and sisters and pre-deceased by her husband of forty-six years, John Hodges. She is survived by her daughter, Priscilla, and her husband, Gordon, of Albuquerque; her daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Richard, of Toronto, and their three children and six grandchildren; and her son Spencer Hodges, of Ohio, and his three children and three grandchildren.

Libby, as she was known, played the piano in dance bands in the 1930s. She worked in the State Department in Washington, DC for four years before moving to Boston. After earning a BME degree she taught music in the Weymouth, MA public schools, for 27 years, directing the high school chorus and the yearly musicals. Libby served as choir director and organist of the First Church in Weymouth for fifty years, and continued her education in night school, earning a MME from the Boston Conservatory, an MS in Psychology from Northeastern University, and an Associates Degree in Choral Conducting from Harvard University. Upon retirement from public school music, she lead the Wollaston, (MA) Men’s Glee Club, a 100 year old organization, for twelve years, and the Massasoit Senior Orchestra for sixteen years and its related senior chorus for five. She continued her involvement with the piano, teaching hundreds of piano students at home. In her nineties, having moved to Kansas to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Priscilla and Gordon Hallberg, Libby played piano, weekly, in the lobby at St. Catherine’s Hospital in Garden City, KS, and served as staff accompanist for the String Academy of the Plains, founded there by her daughter. Since moving to Albuquerque this last year with the Hallberg's, at the age of 100, she established a weekly sing-along session at Atria Vista Del Rio, where she lived. She was a lover of the arts, traveled with her husband and daughter, and volunteered at several hospitals, and enjoyed supporting her students in their studies. Although she was trained as a classical player, she cheered everyone with her piano jazz stylings of the 30’s and 40’s classics.

Those that wish to honor Libby with a contribution to a memorial should send tax deductible contributions to the Scholarship Fund at The String Academy of the Plains, 3000 Calle de Alamo, Albuquerque, NM 87104.