Ola M. O'Dell

Ola O'Dell of Bethel, Vermont, passed away on March 20, 2025, at the Mountain View Center in Rutland. Ola moved to Bethel in 1992, following a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone. Ola chose Bethel because she had always wanted to live in a place where it snowed and where she could have a Victorian house.

Ola was the second of six children born to Otis and Maggie O’Dell in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Always a free spirit, she had fond memories of playing in the woods, climbing trees and swinging on wild grapevines. After graduating from Chattanooga’s Central High School, Ola earned a degree in elementary education from the University of Tennessee. In 1954, she met and married the late Allan Reniche. While Al attended the University of Illinois on the GI Bill, Ola took a teaching job in nearby Mattoon. By this time, they had two children. After Al graduated from law school, they moved to Washington DC, where their third child was born. They moved to Naperville, Illinois in 1962, where they had two more children and Ola taught at the Beebe School. In 1973, the family moved west to California. Despite many years in the Yankee North, Ola never lost her Tennessee accent.

Ola married her second husband, stained-glass artist Finn Antofte, in 1983. They worked together in his San Diego studio until his 1985 death from pancreatic cancer. Finn’s death was a major turning point in Ola’s life and led to her remarkable decision to join the Peace Corps at age 57 and ultimately move across the country from California to Vermont.

Throughout her life, Ola was never afraid to speak out for what she believed. A proud Democratic voter with the bumper stickers to prove it, Ola was an early advocate of gun control and marched against the Second Gulf War in Washington DC. She loved being a Justice of the Peace for Bethel and was thrilled to conduct Bethel’s first same-sex wedding. In the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, she mobilized volunteers and challenged local authorities on behalf of flood victims. She even served a second stint with the Peace Corps in Botswana at the age of 74! She loved music (Irish rebel songs and Broadway show tunes), reading (presidential biographies), basset hounds, and gardening. In early 1994, she welcomed David Phair into her home as her foster son and sixth child.

Evidence of Ola’s impact on Bethel can be found in the flower beds and gardens that she planted throughout the town (sometimes with permission but often without). She even planted flowers in potholes. Shortly after Ola was diagnosed with dementia, her many friends in Bethel threw a party in her honor at Babe’s Bar. Even Rep. Peter Welch (now Senator Welch) came to dance with her!

Ola was preceded in death by siblings Helene, Alfred and Mike, and daughter-in-law Cynthia. She is survived by her sisters Sherry Price and Virginia Jo Cavin; her children Cecil (Greg), Kent, Michele (Otis), Kevin (Tammy), Kyle (Marie), and David (Michelle); and her grandchildren Mary Kame and Maggie Ginoza, Jessica Rausch and Davontae Phair.

Her family would especially like to thank Ola’s caregivers at the Mountain View Center and Bayada Hospice who loved her no matter how feisty she got. No funeral is planned, but a celebration of life will be held at a date to be determined

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ola’s memory to the Bethel Food Shelf (PO Box 211, Bethel VT 05032), Everytown for Gun Safety or the ACLU