Odle Family
Coley Coe Odle
(1882-1964) and
his first wife, Nora Ellen Johnson Odle,
(1887-1960) are listed at 1306
W. Woodard St. in the 1927 Denison City
Directory. It was
compiled in late 1926, which means that the
Odles moved in earlier that
year or at the very end of 1925 when the Robersons
moved out.
Born in Kentucky, Coley was not yet 18 years
old when the 1900 census
found him in Tom Bean in Grayson County,
Texas. Nora was born
in Mississippi, and she was still living
there at the age of 12 on July
2, 1900, according to the 1900 census
enumerated that day. Her
family must have come to Denison soon after
that, because the obituary
of her brother, Grover, born in 1884, said
he came from Mississippi
when he was 15. Nora's obituary said
she attended Denison
schools. On Christmas Eve in 1905, ten
days after her 18th
birthday, she married Coley. Their
first child, Charles
Franklin Odle, was born in Denison nearly 5
years later.
Charles was 15 or 16 when the Odles moved to
Woodard St. from 1326 W.
Main St., near the other end of the block on
the next street over.
His Denison High School 1928 year book
suggests his favorite
song was "Me Too, Ho-Ho! Ha-Ha!!". It
was first
recorded in late 1926, not long after the
Odles moved to Woodard St.
The 1925 Denison
City Directory
shows that C.C. Odle operated a dry cleaners
at 110-112 N. Rusk Avenue.
In the 1927 Directory the address of
the business was
shortened to 110 N. Rusk. Next door at
112 was shoe repair
shop. In 1919 the building at 112 had
become a meat market.
C.C. Odle probably still owned the
building at 112 N. Rusk
because the 1934 Directory lists it as a
cafeteria run by Nora Odle and
her son, Charles. But, oddly enough,
by that time Nora and
Coley had divorced. They were
ex-spouses but still close
business neighbors.
Coley, Nora and
Charles are all
listed at 1306 W. Woodard in the 1930
census. The next city
directory, published in August of 1934,
lists only Nora, Charles and
his wife, Dorothy, at that address.
Charles and Dorothy
married in 1932.; She graduated from
Denison High School two
years ahead of Charles, although she was
just 11 months older.
She was the daughter of Burton William
Baldwin, longtime
partner in the Koeppen-Baldwin plumbing
supply house and contracting
business. She attended Draughon's
Business College and,
beginning in 1932, worked as a cashier at
Odle's Cafeteria.
Charles and
Nora
opened their cafeteria around the beginnig
of April 1932.
Charles was the manager, and Nora
baked the pies.
She had begun supplying local
restaurants with her pies in
the late 1920s. The 1929 City
Directory lists her as a baker
operating out of her home. Once she
and Charles opened the
cafeteria, it became the exclusive outlet
for her pies.
Before he went into business with his
mother, Charles had
worked next door as a salesman at his
father's dry cleaning business.
The only
address
listed for Coley Odle in 1934 is the one for
his business. He
may have lived in the back. The Denison
Press
of August 1, 1934, carried an article,
stating that as of the end of
July 1934 C.C. Olde had been operated his
business in Denison
continuously for 29 years. Research
notes on the Find-A-Grave
memorial
for
Nora say that the research inferred from the
1940 Census data that she
and Coley must have divorced between
1935-1940. However, the
census data actually points to the divorce
occurring before 1935.
Other sources also suggest an earlier
divorce.
Beginning around 1932 she began to be
mentioned in the
newspaper as Mrs. Nora Odle instead of Mrs.
C.C. Odle. In
1934 she bought a car in her own name.
Nora sold
1306 W.
Woodard in 1936. Since she was the
only seller mentioned in
the newspaper, she must have gotten sole
possession of the house when
she and Coley divorced. She sold
her delicatessan
and cafe to Bill Starford in July 1934 and
moved to Pilot Point, Denton
Co., Texas, to take a position as "field
executive for a rest cottage,"
a traveling position for the rescue home for
girls. Around
the time that she left Denison, Charles and
Dorothy moved to
Greenville, Hunt Co., Texas. They
moved back to Denison after
World War II. Nora later moved from
Pilot Point to Sherman.
When she died in 1960, she was living
in Denison again at 517
W. Woodard. She is buried at Fairview Cemetery
in the family plot with her son and his
wife.
At the
time the 1938 Denison City Directory
came out, Coley was the
only one of the Odles' still in Denison.
He married his second
wife that year. The 1940 census lists
his name as C. Clarence
Odle. The small circled "x" beside
second wife Mollie's name
indicates that she was a member of the
household who talked to the
census taker. It appears she did not know
her husband's name was Coley
Coe. Either that or Clarence was her
affectionate nickname
for him.
Odle's
Cafeteria
was succeeded at 112 N. Rusk Ave. by Moore's
Drugstore and then the
Post Office Drugstore. After World War
II it became Carl's
Cafe. Odle Cleaners at 110 N. Rusk
Aven. became Sunshine
Cleaners after the war. In 1953 the
building was occupied by
J.R. Handy Insurance.
Coley and his
second wife, Mollie R., are buried in West
Hill Cemetery at Sherman, Texas, along with
his parents and siblings.
The couple
who
bought 1306 W. Woodard from Nora Odle in
1936 would live there for the
next 21 years.
Biography Index
Susan Hawkins
©2025
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