Hugh Earl Rhodes

View Funeral Webcast

Earl Rhodes, beloved husband of Marie, died Friday December 15 after a short illness.

Hugh Earl Rhodes was born January 7, 1932, in Gulfport, Mississippi, the son of Hugh Edward
Rhodes and Pattie Earle Harwell Rhodes. He grew up in Nashville, attended high school in
Louisville, Kentucky, then earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgetown College in Kentucky where
he was in Lambda Chi Alpha. Immediately after college, he entered the US Army and served in
the Counter Intelligence Corps in Pusan, Korea.

Upon discharge from the Army, Earl joined his parents in Columbia. He met Marie Dickson at
First Baptist Church in Columbia. They married three years later and enjoyed sixty-four years of
marriage together.

Earl was a well-educated man. He earned a Master’s in Business at the University of Tennessee
Nashville, and was a Chartered Life Underwriter, a Chartered Financial Consultant, and a Life
Underwriters Training Council Fellow. He earned a minor in Bible as an undergraduate and
continued to read and deeply study the Bible throughout his life.

Besides his wife Marie, he is survived by his son, Bill; his grandson, Joe (Paola) of Revere,
Massachusetts; and his granddaughter, Megan (Connor) Hilfinger of Salem, Massachusetts.

Visitation will be Thursday, December 21, from noon until 2 PM at Oakes and Nichols Funeral
Home in Columbia. Reverend Mr. Daniel McCulley will officiate a funeral at 2 PM. Internment
will follow at Polk Memorial Gardens.