Warner Hodges, prominent Memphis attorney, died April 10, 2021, at his home in Germantown, Tennessee at the age of 99. He grew up in Memphis, graduating from Southwestern (now Rhodes College) with a major in Chemistry. While at Southwestern, he was President of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

In 1943, he enlisted in the United States Army and, because of his degree in Chemistry, was sent to the highly secret Army facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico, to work on the Manhattan Project in the development of the Atomic Bomb. For his essential work in contributing to the successful conclusion of World War II, he was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the then U.S. Secretary of War, Henry Stinson.

After the war, he attended Vanderbilt University School of Law on the GI bill, graduating in 1949. After a few years in private practice, he was appointed as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, and was later appointed as the U.S. District Attorney by President Eisenhower, where he served with distinction, prosecuting crime in Tennessee. His brilliance was exemplified in the courtroom, and in 1961, he left government service and returned to private practice where he utilized his criminal skills to become one of the foremost criminal defense attorneys in Memphis, earning acquittals for several prominent public officials.

He was married to the late Barbara Rees Hodges, and is survived by their three sons; namely, Rusty Hodges, Lincoln Hodges, and Geoffrey Hodges. Rusty and Lincoln followed him into the practice of law, as did Lincoln’s son, Rees Hodges. He is also survived by five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.