Olta Jo "Jodie" Hicks

She was born December 5, 1938, in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, the only child of Bonnie and Clarence DeWitt. She grew up in Muldrow, Oklahoma, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, where she had large extended families.

She graduated from Fort Smith High School in 1956, briefly attended Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri, then graduated in 1960 from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a teaching degree.

She had met and fallen for Joel Hicks from Little Rock, Arkansas, on a blind date, and in June, 1960, they were married and lived in Siloam Springs where she taught Home Economics at Siloam Springs High School for three years while Joel was completing his studies at U of A in Fayetteville.

In 1963, Jodie left her teaching job at the end of the school year, moved with Joel to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and gave birth to a baby boy named Don. And in 1965, still in Bartlesville, she gave birth to another baby boy named Gene.

In 1967, Jodie and the boys followed Joel to a new job in Joel's hometown of Little Rock, where they lived for many years, and became active members of the Mabelvale United Methodist Church, where Jodie devoted much time and energy in service to God.

In the mid-seventies, Jodie became fascinated by genealogy, and she spent many hours doing research in libraries and cemeteries, going to family reunions, planning family vacations to genealogical research destinations, and contributing to a scholarly work on the history of Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. She even located distant cousins of her husband's family who had lost contact for over fifty years!

In the 70's, it seemed she always had knitting and crocheting projects underway. Many of us still have her afghans on our sofas, if not in our memories!

In the 1980's she got to travel abroad to places like Finland, Germany, France and Italy. She even served as matron of honor to her own mother when Bonnie was married to her second husband, Ted Been, in 1982.

In the 1990's and early 2000’s, Jodie was blessed with the births of two granddaughters and one grandson, all of whom she was so proud!

In 2016, Jodie and Joel moved to the Cove, a retirement community in Little Rock, and they lived there amongst many friends until 2020, when it came time for Jodie to move to the Atkins Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Atkins, Arkansas, where she received wonderful care during the last years of her life. https://atkinsnr.com/

She is fondly remembered by all her family for the phrases she often said throughout her life, especially as her ability to communicate otherwise diminished in later years - phrases from old radio shows and stories she read as a child like,

"Tain't funny, McGee," "Do it, Dudley," and the old family favorite, "Lord, love a duck!™

Jodie is survived by her husband, Joel T. Hicks of Atkins; her son Gene Hicks and her daughter-in-law Lesley, both of Little Rock; her son Don Hicks and her son-in-law, Bo O'Dell, both of Portland, Oregon; her three grandchildren with their partners: Thomas Hicks of Little Rock; Amanda Hicks and Steevan Novero, both of Little Rock; and Caitlin Hicks and her partner Ezar Holmes, both of Las Vegas, Nevada.

She was preceded in death by her father, William Clarence DeWitt; by her mother, Bonnie Shermer DeWitt Been; and by her stepfather, Ted Been.

Funeral services will be 1:30 p.m., Saturday, January 25, 2025 at Griffin Leggett Healey & Roth Funeral Home. Visitation will begin one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Jodie will be laid to rest at Pinecrest Memorial Park. Donations to the charity of your choice would be greatly appreciated.