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Local figure

Odell H. Clayton

Odell H. Clayton, a Hillsboro native, was sheriff of Orange County from 1954 until his death in office in April 1959. He became a deputy sheriff in 1938, was elected sheriff in 1954 and won a second term in 1958, and was president of the Hillsboro Lions Club.

Source: DigitalNC: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 9, 1959, p. 1

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Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 25 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Odell H. Clayton becomes a deputy sheriff Odell H. Clayton, a former power company employee, joined Sheriff S. T. Latta's department as a deputy. He left for the Army in 1941 and returned to the post after the war.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 9, 1959, p. 1
  2. Odell H. Clayton files for sheriff Former deputy Odell H. Clayton paid the $41 filing fee and entered the Democratic primary for sheriff of Orange County, the first of what the News expected to be at least three candidates.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 11, 1954, p. 1
  3. Sheriff S. T. Latta Jr. announces he will not run again Sheriff Samuel T. Latta Jr. announced that he would not seek re-election, and on the same day his deputy Frank C. Maddry of Chapel Hill entered the race for sheriff with Latta's backing. Odell H. Clayton won the office that summer. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 11, 1954, p. 1
  4. Orange Democrats nominate four men for the newly enlarged five-member Board of Commissioners In the Democratic primary, the first election for a five-member county board, Edwin S. Lanier, Henry S. Walker, R. J. M. Hobbs and Sim L. Efland won majorities among twelve candidates, with Dwight M. Ray narrowly ahead of H. Broadwell for the fifth place. In the sheriff's race to succeed the retiring Sam T. Latta Jr., Odell H. Clayton led with 2,434 votes but fell short of a majority, and Frank C. Maddry, voting from a hospital bed, called a runoff. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Sim Efland, Dwight Ray, Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 3, 1954, p. 1
  5. Odell H. Clayton wins the Democratic runoff for sheriff over Frank Maddry With Sheriff S. T. Latta retiring after 19 years, former deputy Odell H. Clayton of Hillsboro beat Latta's deputy Frank C. Maddry 2,618 to 1,900 in the second primary, on a turnout of 4,518 that the paper thought a record for a runoff. Clayton carried Hillsboro and the north of the county; Maddry, laid up by heart attacks since May, carried Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The nomination was tantamount to election. People: Samuel T. Latta Jr., Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 1, 1954, p. 1
  6. Orange County voters elect an enlarged five-member board of commissioners Under a local act of the last General Assembly enlarging the board from three members to five with staggered terms, voters gave four-year terms to the top three, Dwight M. Ray (3,100 votes), Edwin S. Lanier (3,098) and Henry S. Walker (3,090), and two-year terms to incumbents R. J. M. Hobbs and Sim L. Efland. Democrats won every county race in a light vote, Odell H. Clayton for sheriff and Betty June Hayes for register of deeds among them, and the county voted against the amendment limiting each county to one state senator. People: Dwight Ray, Edwin Sidney Lanier, Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Sim Efland, Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 11, 1954, p. 1
  7. Odell H. Clayton is sworn in as sheriff with three new deputies Clayton took office as the county's first new sheriff since S. T. Latta took over in 1935, keeping senior deputy and jailer W. R. Roberts and deputy C. R. Knight and naming three new deputies, Walter E. Clark Jr. of Carrboro, Earl Bush of Chapel Hill and Malone Long of Cedar Grove. People: Samuel T. Latta Jr., Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 9, 1954, p. 1
  8. Pastor asks the commissioners to stop Sunday jalopy races at a new track The Rev. W. I. Conway of the Gospel Baptist Tabernacle asked the county commissioners to block Sunday jalopy races at a new half-mile track just finished off the Orange Grove road, half a mile from his church, calling them a danger to his congregation. The commissioners asked the county attorney and sheriff to study legal remedies; the paper backed him in an editorial. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Odell H. ClaytonThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 5, 1956, p. 1
  9. County commissioners put the deputy sheriffs in uniform At the urging of R. O. Forrest and Sheriff Odell H. Clayton, who said people resisting arrest had claimed not to know plainclothes deputies were officers, the board unanimously voted $900 for jackets, trousers, hats and overcoats in the brown uniform the state sheriffs' convention had recommended. The same meeting created a full-time post of delinquent tax collector and gave it to former deputy Frank C. Maddry. People: Odell H. Clayton, Robert O. ForrestSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 9, 1956, p. 1
  10. A cross is burned at the Hillsborough home where Frank Graham was a guest In the early morning a kerosene-soaked cross wrapped in old bed sheets was burned in the yard of Mrs. Cheshire Webb's home in Hillsborough while her brother-in-law, former UNC president and United Nations representative Frank Porter Graham, slept there. Sheriff Odell H. Clayton traced the drips and laundry marks to a 25-year-old university student, who called it a prank to show how he felt about Graham; in what the News called the first trial under the state's 1953 anti-Klan cross-burning law, the Recorder's Court fined him $10 and costs on February 4, 1957. People: Luther James Phipps, Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 3, 1957, p. 1
  11. Thieves break into the Orange County courthouse and a dozen Hillsboro offices and stores Overnight from February 22 to 23, three men broke into thirteen places in Hillsboro, among them the courthouse, Hillsboro High School and the draft board office, and got away with about $1,250 in cash and goods. The courthouse stayed shut the next morning, and two of the men were later sentenced to three to five years in Orange Superior Court. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 28, 1957, p. 1
  12. Hillsboro marks June Dairy Day with a milking contest on the courthouse lawn Mayor Ben Johnston proclaimed June 22 Dairy Day in Hillsboro and challenged Superintendent G. Paul Carr and Sheriff O. H. Clayton to a milking contest on the old courthouse lawn. Water superintendent Myron Lloyd, milking for the mayor, won before a small crowd, and the county's dairy princess received gifts from local merchants. People: G. Paul Carr, Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 27, 1957, p. 1
Show all 25 dated events
  1. Highway Post Office service replaces the railway mail cars through Hillsboro A highway post office vehicle on a new Greensboro-Kinston route made its first run through Hillsboro and Chapel Hill, taking over the mail carried by the trains of the Goldsboro and Greensboro railway post office. Sheriff Odell Clayton welcomed the postal officials at the Hillsboro post office, townspeople toured the vehicle, and local women served refreshments on the porch of the old courthouse. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 19, 1957, p. 1
  2. Judge Clawson Williams upholds the Orange County racing law against Orange Speedway Ruling in Orange Speedway, Inc.'s suit against Sheriff Odell Clayton, Judge Clawson Williams held that the 1957 act barring automobile and motorcycle races in Orange County on Sundays and after 6 p.m. was constitutional and enforceable, dissolved the temporary restraining order Judge Don K. Moore had issued on September 16 and denied a permanent injunction. The company, headed by Bill France, gave notice of appeal to the state Supreme Court. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Odell H. ClaytonThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 31, 1957, p. 1
  3. The sheriff asks Orange County newsstands to drop magazines on a banned list Sheriff Odell H. Clayton began a program of voluntary censorship under the 1957 state obscene literature act, putting a deputy in charge of showing newsstand operators a list of 20 comic books and 31 magazines drawn up by a committee of the North Carolina Sheriffs' Association and asking them to stop selling them. He said one dealer had pulled the listed magazines at once, and he declined to say what he would do if others refused. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 28, 1957, p. 1
  4. The state Supreme Court strikes down Orange County's Sunday racing law The North Carolina Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the 1957 local act that barred motorcycle and auto races in Orange County on Sundays and after 6 p.m. on weekdays, reversing Superior Court Judge Clawson Williams. The court held that the act, aimed at the people who staged races rather than at racing itself, differed from a Wake County Sunday ban it had upheld. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, John W. Umstead Jr., Odell H. ClaytonThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 16, 1958, p. 1
  5. Sheriff's deputies destroy a 24-box liquor still south of Hillsboro On Easter Sunday, acting on a tip, Sheriff Odell Clayton's deputies found and wrecked a new 24-box still about two miles south of Hillsboro, off old N.C. 10 past Orange Speedway, with more than 7,000 gallons of mash fermenting. They poured the mash into the creek, saved the copper and hose to be sold for the county schools, and dynamited the boiler and stills. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 10, 1958, p. 1
  6. Orange Democrats renominate Sheriff Clayton and Senator Lanier in the primary About 4,700 voters turned out for the May 31 Democratic primary, a larger vote than expected, and renominated Sheriff Odell H. Clayton over Charles M. Johnston by 3,684 to 926 and State Senator Edwin S. Lanier over fellow Chapel Hill attorney Harold Edwards. Ross Porter of Hillsboro won the open school board seat over Carrboro's Carl M. Ellington, and Henry S. Walker, Clarence D. Jones and Donald R. McDade won the three commissioner nominations. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 5, 1958, p. 1
  7. Deputies and state ABC agents arrest bootleggers on undercover evidence Sheriff's deputies and state ABC agents arrested twelve Orange County residents, five of them women, on charges of selling liquor to state ABC agents working undercover, with five more still to be picked up. The paper called it the first such roundup in the county to use undercover agents; Sheriff O. H. Clayton said twice as many could have been charged with more time. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 4, 1958, p. 1
  8. Orange County Democrats sweep a light general election In one of the quietest campaigns in local memory, Orange voters returned every Democrat, giving State Senator Edwin S. Lanier 2,627 votes to 464 and commissioners Henry S. Walker, Donald R. McDade and Clarence D. Jones about 2,600 each to 460 for Republican M. L. Cates Sr. The county voted 2,040 to 924 against the amendment enlarging justices of the peace's jurisdiction. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 13, 1958, p. 1
  9. Orange Democrats name Ross Porter to the county school board The Orange County Democratic Executive Committee named Ross Porter of Hillsboro to the county Board of Education until the General Assembly could formally appoint him, filling the seat Clarence D. Jones gave up to join the county commissioners. The committee also added two vice-chairman posts, filled by Young Democrats president Charles B. Hodson and Sheriff Odell Clayton. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 27, 1958, p. 1
  10. Sheriff Odell H. Clayton is sworn in for a second term Re-elected sheriff in November 1958 with 2,817 votes, Odell H. Clayton took the oath for a second four-year term at the start of December. He died in office four months later.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 9, 1959, p. 1
  11. Sheriff Odell H. Clayton dies in office Sheriff Odell H. Clayton, 45, died at noon four months into his second term; he had been seriously ill since entering a Durham hospital in December. A Hillsboro native and deputy from 1938, he was elected sheriff in 1954 and was president of the Hillsboro Lions Club, and at his funeral at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church on April 5 mourners by the hundreds overflowed the churchyard. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 9, 1959, p. 1
  12. County commissioners appoint C. D. (Buck) Knight sheriff As the first business of its Monday meeting the board unanimously named Deputy Clarence Dew (Buck) Knight, 43, a deputy since 1950 and Hillsboro police chief in 1948-50, to serve out Sheriff Clayton's term to December 1962. Before the vote an Efland contractor protested the deputy's handling of an armed man that weekend; board members called it an isolated incident and went ahead. People: Odell H. ClaytonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 9, 1959, p. 1
  13. Portrait of the late Sheriff Oddie Clayton is hung in the sheriff's office A portrait of the late Orange County sheriff Oddie Clayton, painted by Hillsborough artist Edmund Strudwick and paid for by public subscription in a drive led by ABC Police Chief Burch Compton, was hung in the county sheriff's office before members of his family. People: Odell H. Clayton, Edmund StrudwickSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 22, 1962, p. 1

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