Leta May Tucker Hodge, 88, of Mexico, passed away on Friday, August 26, 2022, at Boone Hospital in Columbia, Missouri.

Mrs. Hodge was born on August 14, 1934, in Tientsin, China, where her father worked for the British American Tobacco Company. She was the daughter of William Jacob Tucker and Evelyn Byrd Harrison Tucker. Later the family moved to Shanghai, where she spent much of her childhood, returning to the U.S. during the war years. They went back to Shanghai after the war and remained until 1948, when they moved to Virginia. Leta graduated from Thomas Dale High School in Chester, Virginia, and attended Westhampton College, University of Richmond, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1956 with a B.A. in history. After teaching high school for three years she returned to academic pursuits, receiving a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship and a Thomas Jefferson Fellowship for graduate study in history at the University of Virginia.

In 1961 Leta married Edward D. Hodge and moved to Mexico, Missouri, where he practiced law. They had three daughters, Susan, Rebecca, and Elizabeth, and five grandchildren. She continued her study of history throughout her life, serving as director of the Audrain County Historical Society and Museum from 1980 to 1990, and writing several books on local history. She also wrote a memoir of her childhood in China, Ricksha Days. She enjoyed antique shopping, needlework, decorating, genealogy, historical research, and visiting with friends and family. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Mexico.

Mrs. Hodge is survived by her husband, Edward; daughters Susan (David) Slavney of St. Louis and Elizabeth (David) Weber of Columbia; grandchildren Jacob Dubbert, Adam Slavney, Matthew Slavney, Max Weber, and Hanna Weber; brother William Jacob Tucker, Jr., of Purcellville, Virginia, and many nieces and nephews and their children. She was preceded in death by her parents, William Jacob Tucker, Sr., and Evelyn Harrison Tucker, and by her daughter Rebecca May Hodge Dubbert.

A private funeral service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, or to the Becky Dubbert Memorial PTK Scholarship Fund, Colorado Northwestern Community College Foundation. They may be sent in care of Arnold Funeral Home, 425 S. Jefferson St., Mexico, MO, 65265.