JAMES CURTIS HODGES, age 88, a resident of Sikeston formerly of Charleston, died Monday, November 26, 2012, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

He was born May 28, 1924, in the Samos Community in rural Charleston, Mo., to the late Thomas L. and Mona Alba Scoggins Hodges. He graduated in 1942 from the Western Military Academy in Alton, IL then taught grade school in the Mississippi County school system for a brief time before enlisting to serve with the US Air Force in February 1943. A veteran of WW II, he served as Aerial Gunnery Instructor at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, NV then served overseas with the Air Transport Command Materials Redistribution Center at Athens, Greece for the European, Pacific and Japanese was zones. Following his discharge from the Air Force in May 1946 he returned to Mississippi County where he was a land owner and farmer. A former member of the Board of Directors of Focus Bank (First Security State Bank) , he semi-retired from farming in 1984, and was a life member of the NRA and the NRA Whittington Center Founder Club in Raton, NM.

On September 8, 1944 he married Kathryn (Kay) Austin who survives of the home.

He was preceded in death by one son, Dennis Ray Hodges.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, November 29, 2012, at the McMikle Funeral Home from 9:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.

Graveside Service is scheduled at 11:00 am in the IOOF Cemetery with the Missouri Military Honors Program conducting Graveside Rites.

Interment will follow under the direction of McMikle Funeral Home.

Pallbearers will be Hubert Crider, Jeff Crider, Joe McCloskey, Don McCann, Donnie Waters, and Chad Kellett.

Online condolences may be shared at www.mcmiklefuneralhome.com.