Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Margaret Lee (Odneal) Lennox, 1863-1945
By Paige Iwata, student, Michigan State University
Margaret Lee Odneal was born on April 3, 1863 in Bates County, Missouri, to William Jefferson Odneal and Helen Summerfield Fletcher. She was the youngest of four children. Margaret lived in Deepwater, Missouri until around 1890 when she relocated to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory to live with an aunt and uncle. At 40 years of age she married Canadian immigrant Ira James Lennox on August 20, 1903, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory. She was his second wife, and while Ira had children from his previous marriage, they never had children together. The couple lived in Oklahoma City, Miami, and Sulphur, Oklahoma, until Margaret's husband died in April 1921. She served on several Y.M.C.A. committees, she was a member of the Business and Professional Woman's Club, and she was very active in her local church, often hosting gatherings in her home. She served as recording secretary of the Territorial Equal Suffrage Club in 1906. She remained a member when the club became the Oklahoma Woman's Suffrage Association and served as auditor in 1914. She dabbled in real estate sales and operated the Lennox Summer Home offering room and board. Margaret eventually moved to Los Angeles County, California, by 1936 where she lived with her sister, Mary Malvina Ludwick. Margaret passed away on October 29, 1945. She was buried in Radford Cemetery in Bates County, Missouri. Margaret was 82 years old.
SOURCES:
1890 and 1900 and 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Deepwater, Bates County, Missouri; "Margaret L. Odneal," Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, Marriage Records, 1890-1995; Ida Husted Harper, ed., The History of Woman Suffrage, New York: National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922 [LINK]; Sulphur-Times Democrat (Sulphur, Oklahoma), March 4, 1915; The Messenger (Shawnee, Oklahoma), October 15, 1914; The Oklahoma City Times (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), June 24, 1906.