Lemuel A. Odom devoted his life to "rescue work" - rescuing young unwed mothers from the savagery of the middle years of the 20th century when an unmarried woman was considered to be a castaway.
Lem and his wife, Ella, spent most of their adult life in maintaining homes for unwed mothers. In 1938, he wrote a book named, "Fifty Years in Rescue Work." The book is no longer in print, and I have been unable to locate a copy for my personal library.
"Uncle Lem" gave a copy of the book to my cousin, JoAnn Mortensen in the late 1940's and she still has it in her possession. Her sister, LaVonna Mortensen copied portions of the book for me and I have transcribed the first few chapters for distribution to our cousins. These are included in this website.