Former music teacher Arlene Boddicker dies at 81

Arlene Boddicker's legacy lives through thousands of musicians in Eastern Iowa and beyond.

Boddicker, who taught music lessons for 55 years, died Sunday, Oct. 17, at age 81, in Encino, Calif.

“Ten days ago she raced me to the ice cream store,” her son Michael Lehmann Boddicker said. “Two days later she had a stroke.”

Boddicker lived with Michael and his family in California for the past five years.

“She passed quickly, peacefully and pain-free,” Michael Boddicker said.

For the last decade, Boddicker suffered from Pick's disease, a form of dementia. Although she also had several strokes, she continued to play accordion until two weeks before her death, her son said.

Boddicker began teaching music lessons in 1946, and in 1948 she and her husband, Jerry, established the Boddicker Schools of Accordion throughout Eastern Iowa. Later, the name was changed to Boddicker School of Music and offered instruction on all instruments.

The schools enrolled more than 1,600 students and maintained more than 60 employees in studios in small towns throughout Eastern Iowa. The Boddickers also ran a full-line music store in Cedar Rapids.

Darlene Suchomel, 71, of Cedar Rapids, began taking accordion lessons from Boddicker in 1949 when she was 10 years old. She later taught accordion for the Boddicker School of Music.

“She taught us more than music,” Suchomel said. “She taught poise and self-esteem.”

Suchomel sent Boddicker a card on her 80th birthday, thanking her for her time and patience.

“When you're young, you don't realize what somebody is doing for you,” Suchomel said. “I started in August and by December, she had me onstage doing a solo at the Christmas program.”

Suchomel is now the director of the Iowa Accordion Club, started in 2002 by Boddicker's brother, Leonard Reyman of Cedar Rapids.

Ron DeWitte, 61, a professional musician in Cedar Rapids, also took lessons from the Boddickers and eventually taught guitar lessons and worked at their retail outlet and Czech Village store.

“They were like second parents to me,” DeWitte said. “They are the ones who got me started and I will always be grateful to them.”

Growing up in the Boddicker home in Cedar Rapids primed Michael Boddicker for a successful music career in Hollywood, where he has won a Grammy award, composed music for films and worked with Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Barbara Streisand, to name a few.

“We had seven music studios in the basement,” he said of his childhood home.

“Mom raised her family by running up and down the stairs telling us to do homework and running back downstairs to give lessons.”

His mother's dedication to music inspired him – and many others – to pursue a successful music career

“She lived for and was fed by teaching music,” Michael Boddicker said. “She touched thousands of people and thousands of people touched her.”

A memorial Mass will be held at 8 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 120 Fifth St. SW, Cedar Rapids. A celebration of life will be held from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Nov. 21 at the Ponderosa Ballroom in Walford.

“We'll dance and tell stories and it will be a happy occasion,” Michael Boddicker said.