Arden Ralph Hodges, 87, Lee's Summit, MO, passed away Sunday, October 21, 2018 at Wilshire at Lakewood in Lee's Summit.  Funeral services were held  Friday, October 26, 2018 at the Atkinson Funeral Home in Harrisonville, MO.  Burial  in Crescent Hill Cemetery, Adrian, MO.

Arden was born December 19, 1930 in Archie, MO, the son of Ralph Gross and Folste Marie (Bopp) Hodges.  After graduating from Archie High School in 1948, he worked for the Missouri State Highway Department in Archie, then Richards Conover Hardware and General Mills in Kansas City, MO.  After the Korean War began, he and fellow classmate, Wendell Hembree, joined the Missouri National Guard.  Soon after, they were both called to active duty in the Army.  After basic training at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, he went to Jeep and Half-Track Vehicle Technical School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.  He then spent the rest of his two years of active duty in Germany.

After service, he began working as an auto mechanic in Independence, Missouri and later joined the U.S. Post Office as a letter carrier in Independence. Arden married Mary E. Morgan on January 12, 1967 at the Archie Methodist Church.  They later moved from Independence to Carrolton, Texas where they lived until Arden retired from the U.S. Post Office in December, 1991.  They returned to the Lee's Summit area and lived at Raintree Lake until entering a senior living facility in Raymore, MO.  After Mary passed away in June, 2014, Arden lived in various senior facilities in the Lee's Summit area.

Arden was preceded in death by his parents, one sister, Reta Marie Lutes, and his wife, Mary on June 3, 2014.  He is survived by one brother, Hilton Hodges, Lee's Summit, MO.