Obituary of Odessier Stennis-Mays

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at Wright Funeral Home Chapel in Coweta, Oklahoma for Mrs. Odessier Stennis-Mays of Taft, Oklahoma, who passed away on Friday morning, December 18, 2009 at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She had been a patient at Tulsa Nursing Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because of a kidney ailment. Mrs. Stennis-Mays was born Sept. 9, 1941 in Lincoln County, Arkansas, a daughter of Henry and Eliza Stennis. She later lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, Youngstown, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, moving to the Taft and Coweta, Oklahoma areas in the mid-1970s. She was a 1959 graduate of the J.C. Cook High School of Wrightville, Arkansas. She had attended the all-black Horace Mann High School of Little Rock, Arkansas, until the then governor of Arkansas closed the high school along with three others during the historic desegregation of the all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957-58. Mrs. Stennis-Mays also attended Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio for a year. She had worked as an operator and supervisor for the former Michigan Bell Telephone Company in Detroit, Michigan. Mrs. Stennis-Mays was affiliated with the New Testament Church of Coweta, Oklahoma. She leaves a daughter, Ms. Jennifer Stennis of Detroit, Michigan; two brothers, Leon and Henry Stennis of Youngstown, Ohio; a sister, Mrs. Joyce Robinson of Youngstown, Ohio; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Her parents and a son, Ivan, are deceased. Friends may visit with the family one hour before the time of the service at the funeral home. The family of Odessier Stennis-Mays entrusted her care and services to Wright Funeral Home, 210 S. Broadway, Coweta, OK 74429, (918) 486-5515. Family and friends may view the obituary and send condolences to Mrs. Stennis-Mays family online @ www.wrightfh.net.