A nationally recognized, award winning educator from the Cincinnati area, Odessa Walker Hooker was born in a shack in the countryside, near Moultrie Georgia, on September 21, 1930. The first of nine children born to Anderson and Pauline Walker, she grew up under the Jim Crow laws. Her father worked as a share cropper and at the slaughter house in Moultrie to support his growing family, while her mother stayed home to raise the children.
Odessa was an outstanding student, graduating from Moultrie High School for Negro Youth in 1947. She graduated from Paine College in Augusta Georgia, in 1951. Her first job was teaching English at Barnesville High School in Barnsville Georgia.
Odessa married her High School sweet heart Randy Hooker. After the birth of her first son, she moved to Cincinnati. Odessa and Randy had 5 children, and she taught in a variety of inner city elementary schools from 1961 to 1983. She also served as Assistant Principal in four inner city elementary schools from 1983 to 1990. In 1967, she earned her Masters of Education in Administration and Supervision from the University of Cincinnati and pursued post graduate studies at Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, and at the University of Wisconsin-Eau-Claire.
For her outstanding teaching career and many other accomplishments she received the 1993 Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year Award. In 1999 Odessa won the Applause! Magazine award for Service to Education. Odessa came to national attention when she was awarded the Excellence In Education Award from the General Synod of the United Church of Christ in 2001.
In 2004, Odessa moved to Atlanta, Georgia to be with her children and grandchildren. Odessa now serves as vice moderator at her church, and plans to publish her new book, “Premier African American Role Models of Cincinnati,” in 2007.
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