Odessa Lee Hannon McGrady

Odessa Lee Hannon McGrady
September 1, 1926, to September 7, 2024

Odessa McGrady entered eternal life peacefully in her sleep on the morning of September 7 at Paoli (PA) Hospital, where she was being treated following a fall. She was born September 1, 1926, in Pittsburgh, PA. Because of a “leaky heart” – a heart murmur – she wasn’t expected to see many birthdays. However, in the words of her favorite Bible verse, she did not faint but believed she’d see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13). Sure enough, on September 1, 2024, she celebrated her 98th birthday in her right mind and surrounded by her family.

Most of those 98 years were spent in her adopted hometown of Corning, NY.  She was widely known as a woman of faith, beloved mother and mother figure, legendary cook and food lover, and Civil Rights champion alongside her late husband, Corning native and WWII veteran Charles R. McGrady (November 23, 1924, to May 14, 1999). She and Charlie (aka Big Mac) were married nearly 50 years until his death and raised six daughters at their home on Tuxill Avenue in South Corning.

After graduating from high school in 1944, Odessa took a Greyhound bus from Pittsburgh to Alabama to attend the Tuskegee Institute (now University); she graduated in 1948 with a BS degree in Commercial Dietetics. At the school, she met some of the young men training to join the famed Tuskegee Airmen. In an oral history recorded by one of her granddaughters, she recalled the four-day journey to Tuskegee: moving to the back of the bus after crossing the Mason-Dixon line, getting off the bus when a white person needed her seat, sitting in the Colored waiting room, and hoping the next bus had space for her.

While on a Tuskegee work-study rotation as a food and nutrition intern in the kitchen of Corning Hospital, she met her future husband. They married at Central Baptist Church in Pittsburgh on September 17, 1949, and honeymooned in Niagara Falls before settling in Corning.

Odessa’s long working life in the Corning area included time as a pastry cook for the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s on Denison Parkway at Pine St. During the Civil Rights era, when Woolworth’s stores in the Deep South refused to serve blacks at their lunch counters, Odessa staged a quiet one-woman protest. She boycotted her employer, forfeiting her 10% employee discount, and shopped at Newberry’s across the street until Woolworth’s desegregated its lunch counters.

Odessa and Charlie were founding members of the Corning Bi-racial Council, whose activities included social gatherings of white and black families in each other’s homes. The friendships formed persist to this day. More recently, in June of 2020, Odessa, then 93, stood for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while watching the televised memorial service for George Floyd. That’s how long Police Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck.

In1966 Odessa started working as an accounts receivables clerk at Ingersoll-Rand (now Dresser-Rand) in Painted Post. She retired from the Rand more than 20 years later and returned to her dietary science roots, working for the Cornell University Cooperative Extension office in Bath, NY. As a nutrition educator, she visited young mothers and families in their homes.

Cooking for and educating others about the importance of good food was a life-long passion. No holiday dinner was complete without her famous yeast rolls. Even after she stopped cooking in her early 90s, Odessa taught her caregivers and daughters how to prepare her favorite foods.  Nothing made her happier than sharing a good Sunday dinner with her friends and family.  

Through it all, Friendship Baptist Church was the cornerstone of Odessa’s life in Corning. She taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, served as a Deacon, and remained a faithful participant in weekly Bible Study, Sunday School and Monday Prayer Circle even after moving to live with her oldest daughter in Port Ewen, NY, in March of 2023.  Along with the other women of Friendship, Odessa used her culinary skills for events such as the Everybody’s Birthday Dinner to raise money for a new church after the previous building was destroyed in the Hurricane Agnes flood of 1972. The proceeds from those events allowed the church to erect its current structure, which was paid off in the late 1980s.

She was also active in other local church groups, including Church Women United, and served on many local nonprofit Boards. She also was involved with The Office of the Aging and Meals on Wheels. In recognition of her community service, Odessa was named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Corning chapter of Rotary International in 2012.

Odessa was preceded in death by her parents Gertrude King Hannon and Thomas Edison Hannon Sr.; siblings Eva Mae Hannon Thomas, Thomas Edison Hannon Jr., and James Joseph (JJ) Hannon; firstborn grandchild Modupe Adeyo Clarke; and husband Charles R. McGrady.

She is survived by a host of extended family members, including10 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, and six daughters: Evelyn Jean Clarke (G. Modele Clarke) of Port Ewen, NY; Charlene Ann McGrady (Douglas W. Fearn) of West Chester, PA; Margaret Elaine Jones (Lloyd O. Jones) of Fort Washington, MD; Karen McGrady Hendrix (Tom Hendrix) of Savannah, GA; Valerie McGrady Blake (Daryl Blake) of Douglasville, GA; and Natalie Chantal McGrady (Bill Wiley) of Victoria, MN.

Visitation will be Monday, September 16, between 11 am and 1 pm and 3 pm to 5 pm at Acly-Stover Funeral Home, 327 East Second Street, Corning, NY 14830. Burial will be at Hope Cemetery, 325 Park Avenue, Corning, NY 14830.

The funeral service will take place on what would have been Charlie and Odessa’s 75th wedding anniversary: Tuesday, September 17, at 11 am at Friendship Baptist Church, 120 Pearl Street, Corning, NY 14830. Those unable to attend in person may view the live streamed service at https://maodg.onestream.live or by using the QR code above.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Odessa’s memory to:

Food Bank of the Southern Tier
388 Upper Oakwood Avenue
Elmira, NY 14903-1129
607-796-6061
www.foodbankst.org/give2024

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