Sheri O’Dell, 62; Organized NOW Marches for Abortion Rights, Aided Opposition to Bork

Sheri O’Dell, a women’s rights activist who in 1989 organized what was then the largest abortion rights demonstration ever staged in Washington, D.C., died Sunday of lung cancer at her home in Takoma Park, Md. She was 62.

As action vice president for the National Organization for Women, O’Dell directed the 1989 March for Women’s Lives that drew nearly three-quarters of a million demonstrators. Seven months later, she led a follow-up rally that, although half the size of the previous one, attracted 300,000 participants, supporters said. She previously had put together a group of activists who traveled to a dozen states, organizing opposition to anti-abortion laws and ballot initiatives.

A dynamic organizer who was president of West Virginia NOW, O’Dell worked in journalism and government before turning full time to national advocacy. O’Dell was born in Charleston, W.Va., graduated from the University of West Virginia and worked as a newspaper reporter in Hollywood, Fla., and in her hometown.

She received a master’s degree in communications from Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., in the mid-1970s and worked on public relations for the former Morris Harvey College, now the University of Charleston.

She was then a speechwriter for former West Virginia Gov. John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV, a Democrat who is now a U.S. senator.

Rockefeller later appointed her head of the communications division of the Governor’s Office of Economic and Community Development.

O’Dell moved to the Washington area in 1985 to work for NOW and quickly became an integral part of the national feminist leadership.

She helped lead the organization’s opposition to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, whose controversial nomination by President Reagan was defeated.

In 1995, she was among the 35,000 women attending the United Nations’ fourth World Conference on Women in China.

In 1990, she joined public interest firm Craver, Matthews, Smith and Co. as a senior writer and creative strategist, and she wrote direct-mail solicitations for the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Brady Center and Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence, NOW and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

O’Dell is survived by her partner of 23 years, Janet Chapin; a sister; and a brother.