He was born in Hosston, Louisiana, as one of 14 children to Hayden Frazier Moore and Myrtle Lee Woods Moore. At age six the family moved to Plain Dealing. In growing up on a farm, he says, he never attended school until the cotton was picked. One year he picked over 3,000 pounds of cotton. The Moores illuminated their house with kerosene lamps, while his mother cooked on a wood stove. In 1939 the family moved to Pine Island. Odell graduated from Belcher High School in 1942. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and took training at Fort Lewis, Washington. While there, he received news that Bill, one of four of his brothers in the service, was killed in New Guinea. His buddies gave him money for him to go home but he declined. He took additional training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and was assigned to the 379^th Tank Battalion. He was a corporal and company clerk when his unit sailed from New Jersey in July of 1944 to Great Britain. They later sailed to Le Havre, France in November of 1944. His unit went on to Simpleveld, Holland, then into Germany and Nuremberg. Odell left Europe in fall of 1945. He was discharged on January 12, 1946 at Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and soon returned to school. Odell graduated from Northwestern University in fall of 1948 with a degree in business education. He went to work for United Gas in 1949, becoming personnel superintendent in Victoria, Texas, then was employer relations supervisor in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1951 he married Mary McLeod. He retired in February, 1986 in Houston.