When SAC students completed one of Marianne Odom’s journalism classes, they often described themselves as “Odomized.” The nickname grew out of her unwavering commitment to accuracy, Associated Press style, balanced reporting and deadlines.
“She had a strict teaching style but always had time to talk about assignments and the process of writing a feature story,” Vincent Davis, a feature writer and columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, told the Sundial.
Davis is one of the many professional journalists Odom trained during her 35-year teaching career at SAC. When he lectures on feature writing, he traces his origin story to her classroom and the high standards and passion for the craft she instilled in him.
“Ms. Odom was always about business, but she was very passionate about sharing ways to bring a feature to life,” he said.
Odom, who retired in 2021, had a stern, structured approach that pushed student journalists to meet her high standards and develop the discipline the profession requires.
Texas Public Radio Senior Reporter David Martin Davies, who served as a Ranger staffer while he studied journalism at SAC, said Odom’s stern teaching style was necessary to prepare journalists like him for the profession.
“If some people thought Marianne Odom was tough, they likely wouldn’t survive very long in a real newsroom, where mistakes and missed deadlines can be grounds for immediate termination,” Davies said.
Odom was born Dec. 16, 1949, in Tyler, Texas, where her love for journalism blossomed. When she was asked to write a career report in the eighth grade, her father connected her with the Tyler Morning Telegraph’s police reporter, who gave her a firsthand look at the job.
“What he talked about was the most exciting career I had ever heard of,” Odom said.
From then on, she studied journalism. She attended Tyler Junior College before earning a Bachelor of Science in education from the University of North Texas, and she earned a Master of Science in Journalism from East Texas A&M.
After finishing her academics, she moved to San Antonio and was hired as a fashion and features editor at the San Antonio Express-News, where she worked for several years before deciding to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become an educator.
As a journalism instructor at SAC, she taught myriad courses on reporting and writing and mass communications, and she served as faculty advisor for The Ranger, then SAC’s student news publication. She encouraged her students to cover everything from stories about everyday life to hard-hitting news.
“I wrote an opinion piece for The Ranger about the Styrofoam cups used in the SAC cafeteria,” Davies said. “The article got a reaction and several letters to the editor, many of them not positive. I wanted to write a rebuttal, but Odom told me that’s not how journalism works. I had my say, and then the letter writers had theirs. I had to accept it and move on. I still lean on that advice today.”
Sophomore journalism student Aaron Martinez, who serves as assistant managing editor of the Sundial, took Odom’s Introduction to Mass Communications class in 2014. He said she taught him the value of hard work and motivated him to pursue journalism.
“Her insight and how she carried herself as a professional was very inspiring to me and made me want to embody that,” Martinez said.
Odom stacked each newsroom with the same steady expectation: deadlines meant deadlines. She coordinated the journalism program and spent countless hours marking up drafts and posing pointed questions for her student journalists. Students learned to brace for her blunt feedback, and the next day they returned with cleaner leads, tighter quotes, and fewer excuses.
After retiring from SAC, Odom turned her focus to finishing a book. She co-authored “Growing Up in the Lone Star State: Notable Texans Remember Their Childhoods” with Gaylon Finklea Hecker. Odom and Hecker started the project in 1981 when they worked together as feature writers for the San Antonio Express-News. Their work on the book earned the authors the Yellow Rose of Texas, an award given to Texas women for exceptional community service or preservation of Texas history.
As the longest-serving advisor in The Ranger’s history, Odom’s presence became part of the paper itself. With her red, copy-editing pen, late nights in the Ranger newsroom, and the rare praise she offered when a student’s story finally landed, Odom left her mark on SAC’s journalism program and countless students and professional journalists — many of whom still fondly recall the lasting effects of being “Odomized.”
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