Odessa Grady Clay

Odessa Lee Clay (née O'Grady; February 12, 1917 – August 20, 1994) was the mother of three-time world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and Rahman Ali, and the paternal grandmother of Laila Ali. She married Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. in the 1930s and worked for some time as a household domestic to help support her young children. She supported and inspired her son throughout his boxing career and was a ring-side regular at his bouts.

Early life She was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, one of six children of John Lewis O'Grady and Birdie B. Morehead. Her paternal grandfather was an Irishman named Abe O'Grady, who emigrated to the United States from Ennis, County Clare, soon after the Civil War and married Susan "Susie" Walker, the daughter of freed slaves Lewis and Amanda J. "Mandy" Walker of Todd County, Kentucky. Her maternal grandfather, Tom Morehead, was the son of a white man whose surname was Morehead and a slave woman named Dinah. Morehead served in the 122nd United States Colored Troops during the war.

Clay's parents separated when she was young, and her mother worked as a maid, taking care of the household chores and the young children of a white family. Clay was raised partly by her aunt. The Clays' marriage was troubled. Ali told boxing promoters, "She's afraid of him."

Clay supported and inspired her son throughout his boxing career. At small gyms early in her son's career and later at international arenas when he became world-famous, Clay traveled with her son and was a ring-side regular at his bouts. Muhammad Ali was much closer to his mother, whom he lovingly called "Bird", "because she's as sweet and pretty as a bird", than to his father. After discovering boxing, it was his mother with whom he shared his dreams of greatness.

Final years Clay's husband died in 1990. Odessa Clay died of heart failure on August 20, 1994, aged 77, at Hurstbourne Health Center, a nursing home in the Louisville, Kentucky, area. She had been disabled by a stroke since February 1994.

Odessa Clay appeared as herself in the film documentaries Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story (1996) and When We Were Kings (1996). In the 1977 film The Greatest, Odessa Clay was portrayed by Dorothy Meyer, and in the 2001 film Ali she was portrayed by Candy Ann Brown.