| Sources |
- [S104] Cocke County, Tennessee, and its People, Cocke County Heritage Book Committee, (Walsworth Publishing, 1992), 186.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 30 Jan 2014.
Born in 1886 in neighboring Sevier County, O’Dell was the daughter of George Washington Webb and his wife, the former Sarah Kansas McAndrew. She moved with her family to Newport in 1892 and married her first husband, George W. O’Dell, in 1905.
O’Dell’s entrance into teaching came in 1899, when she was only 13 years old. In those days, teachers only had to pass an exam, usually verbal, in the summer before schools opened in the fall in order to receive their certificate to teach for the coming year.
She taught her last school at age 63.
For many years, she taught at Newport Grammar School.
However, simply serving as a classroom teacher wasn’t all O’Dell did. She was a born politician who could “play hardball” with the cigar-smoking political leaders of the day.
In 1920, she was elected Superintendent of Cocke County Schools and held this position until 1923. She also became the first woman to serve as president of the East Tennessee Education Association.
Perhaps her political victories (and defeats) on a local level whetted her appetite for a run for state office. In 1937, she was the first woman from Cocke County elected to a term in the Tennessee General Assembly, and, to date, no other woman has ever been elected. She was also the first woman in Tennessee ever elected to a second term.
In 1937, the Tennessee General Assembly bestowed the title, “Lady O’Dell” upon her, an honor she truly enjoyed. Dressing flamboyantly with hats, scarves, pins, and gloves, she reveled in the political maneuverings and worked diligently to see Tennessee enact legislation prohibiting underage marriages.
Even though Lady Ruth was not a Cocke County native, she developed a deep love for her adopted home and, in 1950, published Over the Misty Blue Hills: The Story of Cocke County, Tennessee.
After years of research, during which she interviewed many people with first-person memories of the Civil War, O’Dell approached the Cocke County Quarterly Court to request funding for her work’s publication. After much haggling, the body voted a paltry $500 sum.
The book originally sold for $5 per copy. Some made fun of her efforts, but historians today treasure original copies, sometimes paying $100 for an autographed copy.
Following her first husband’s death in 1944, Lady Ruth married W. A. Dysart. She died suddenly at her home in Carson Springs on March 24, 1956, leaving two children and three grandchildren.
School Days 2!
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1886 - 1956 (69 years)
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