Major Robert Odell Owens was a New York politician and a prominent member of the Democratic Party. Owens served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 2007, representing the state’s 11th Congressional district.

Owens was born on June 28, 1936, in Collierville, Tennessee to Ezekiel and Edna Owens. He was later Owens was raised in Memphis, Tennessee and his father worked in a furniture factory as a laborer. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1956 from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and received a master’s degree in library science in 1957 from Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta.

Owens began his career in librarianship. After obtaining his master’s degree, Owens settled in Brooklyn, New York and began his career as a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library from 1958 through the late 1960s. At the same time, Owens became active in the Congress of Racial Equality and other community groups.

In 1968, New York City Mayor John Lindsay made Owens the commissioner of New York City’s Community Development Agency. In 1982, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, replacing the retiring Shirley Chisholm, where he remained until his retirement in 2006. Owens became known as “The Librarian In Congress.” Owens died October 21, 2013 in New York City of congestive heart failure.

sources:

https://www.bendbulletin.com/news/1284140-153/major-owens-librarian-politician-and-author