Cleone Hodges

Mildred Cleone Haynes Hodges, known as Cleone Hodges (July 11, 1909 - September 9, 2012), was from 1938 to 1974 a professor of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Appalachian State University in Boone in Watauga County in northwestern North Carolina.An article in the Watauga Democrat newspaper published a month before her death at the age of 103 referred to Hodges as "among the most loved of local residents — and a liberated woman long before the term was coined."Hodges had two other brothers, J. Y. Haynes and his wife, the former Edith Henry, both deceased, and Delmus Wells Haynes (1918-1919), who died prior to his second birthday.
Academic, athletic, and civic activities
Hodges first attended Northwestern State University, then the state teacher training institution in Natchitoches, Louisiana, before she enrolled for graduate studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. There she was an LSU Lady Tigers basketball player and once competed against the Olympian Babe Didrikson. Hodges turned to golf when her son, J. B. Hodges, played the game in high school. She was a member of the Blue Ridge Golf Association, the Blue Ridge Ladies’ Golf Association, and the Boone Golf Club, at which she won the championship in 1975. For years, she participated in the Senior Games at local, state, and national events and won eight Gold Medals.

Death and legacy
Hodges was divorced from the late Jack A. Hodges.

In 1987, the Cleone Haynes Hodges Scholarship was established in her honor to support Appalachian State University students in the College of Health Sciences. In 2005, Hodges was inducted into the Watauga County Sports Hall of Fame.

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