September 1, 1929 – July 31, 2025
Chelsea, MI
Alice Rhodes, age 95, left this earth to make music with the angels in heaven on July 31, 2025, in the presence of her son and daughter while under hospice care at Silver Maples in Chelsea, Michigan. She was just one month short of her 96th birthday. Alice was born in 1929 in Elkhart, Indiana to the late William and Edna Rhodes. She was the second of four children.
Alice was known for her kindness, compassion and her beautiful, expressive piano playing. With perfect pitch, she played by ear. If you could hum the song, she could play it for you. Her musical gifts became evident at an early age when, as a preschooler, she came home from church and played the song she learned in Sunday school on the piano. Alice was soon taking violin and piano lessons. In the sixth grade she joined the high school orchestra playing violin. However, after two bouts of rheumatic fever, she was told that holding the violin put too much strain on her heart, so piano became her main instrument.
Alice was a finalist on a popular radio talent show broadcast in the 1930’s and 1940’s. In high school Alice wrote the school song for Elkhart High School and accompanied for church choirs, dance classes and other students. She received scholarships from Miles Lab and Eastman School of Music and earned a Bachelor of Music in piano in 1951 from Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York.
While at the University of Rochester, Alice volunteered at Rochester State Hospital playing music for mentally disabled patients. After graduation, she was offered a job in the recreational therapy department, while she pursued a master’s degree in counseling. The next year, someone in one of her counseling classes convinced her to take a job teaching elementary school music at Greece Central School, when the current teacher went on an extended medical leave.
It was during this time that she married her husband of 20 years, William H Tite, Jr. He was a lieutenant in the air force. When he was deployed to Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1954, Alice went with him, leaving her teaching job and grad school just one class short of completing her master’s degree. The two and a half years spent in Alaska were some of the most memorable of her life, including the harrowing drive up the Alaskan Highway in December. Her son, William H. Tite, III was born in Alaska.
In 1957, the family moved to Royal Oak, Michigan where Alice’s husband completed his master’s degree in automotive engineering. Alice’s daughter Julie Tite Nelson was born in Royal Oak.
Alice and her family moved to Chelsea, Michigan in 1961 when her husband took a job at the Chrysler Proving Grounds. While in Chelsea, Alice completed a master’s degree in education at the University of Michigan in 1964. Alice loved little children and soon became the elementary school music teacher for Chelsea Public Schools, a position that she held until 1970. Alice also gave piano lessons to several private students.
When the Chelsea Community Hospital opened in 1970, Alice became the Director of Volunteer Services. In 1972, she was asked to set up a Recreational Therapy Department, one of the first in Michigan. She was a founding member of the American Therapeutic Recreation Association and the Civic Foundation of Chelsea. One of her most lasting accomplishments was planning and supervising construction of the Chelsea Fitness Trail in 1977. She retired from Chelsea Community Hospital in 1994.
Alice divorced in 1975. To earn extra money, she played piano in the evenings at several Ann Arbor area restaurants, including The Briarwood Hilton, Bimbos, and The Gandy Dancer, to name a few. She was a member of the Ann Arbor Federation of Musicians, Local 625 until her death.
Every October for several years, Alice also was the on-site liaison at the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island for the Michigan Recreation and Parks Association. She served as host for all the senior citizen groups that visited the hotel during the month of October. To do this she saved all her vacation and took the whole month of October off to work at the Grand Hotel.
Alice never forgot that her musical talent was a gift from God and over the years, Alice’s Spirit-filled piano playing graced the sanctuaries of several area churches, including First Congregational Church of Chelsea and the Parables special needs worship service, Saint John’s UCC in Chelsea, Crossroads Baptist Church in Ann Arbor and Church of the Good Shepherd in Ann Arbor. In addition, for over 30 years she and several members of Bob Olsen’s Gaslighter’s band volunteered playing music on Thursday afternoons for residents of the Methodist Home (now called Chelsea Retirement Community.)
Alice moved to Ann Arbor in 1997. She played violin in the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and she enjoyed playing chamber music, Dixieland and Jazz, as well as bicycling, swimming, photography, cross-country skiing, cooking, gardening and travel. She visited at least 18 countries and spent a month cruising the Mediterranean on a friend’s sailboat.
Alice felt her purpose in life was to help relieve other people’s suffering which she did through music and friendship. She worried that she didn’t accomplish enough in her lifetime, but the number and strength of the friendships she built far outweigh the greatest of accomplishments. She touched so many lives, and she always made people feel valued and listened to. She had a strong, quiet faith that she lived through small acts of love and kindness. If she saw a need, she tried to help, whether by picking up groceries, giving a ride, making a batch of cookies, lending a hand or a listening ear. She will be missed by many, but by none more than her daughter, Julie.
Alice was preceded in death by her parents William and Edna Rhodes, her sister Dorothy Kidder, her niece Dawn Kijak and nephew Scott Rhodes and her former husband William Tite, Jr. She is lovingly remembered by her son Bill Tite, daughter Julie (Tom) Nelson, brothers Clark (Maria) and Dick (Barb) Rhodes, several nieces and nephews and so many friends.
A Celebration of Life and her music will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at Silver Maples in Chelsea. We invite you to share stories during the service about how Alice touched your life. If you are unable to attend, you are invited to send your remembrance to be read aloud at the celebration via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please join us for light refreshments and conversation following the service.
Memorial donations can be made in Alice’s name to Church of the Good Shepherd in Ann Arbor, First Congregational Church of Chelsea, or Arbor Hospice.
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