Odette Marie Céline was born on April 28, 1912 to Gaston and Yvonne Brailly who lived in Amiens, France. Her brother Louis was born a year later in 1913. In 1914 when World War I broke out, Odette’s father joined the Infantry Regiment and received the Croix de Guerre and Médaille Militaire for his bravery. He died trying to find two of his men who had gone missing after the Battle of Verdun. Thus, Odette and her brother Louis grew up never knowing their father except his brave deeds.
Odette was a sickly child, but she managed to grow out of that when her mother enrolled her at a convent near the English Channel. When Odette graduated from high school, the nuns wrote in their final report that Odette was intelligent but also petulant. This streak would be seen clearly in Odette’s later activities as a spy.