Mike Donnelly. The efficient and popular chief clerk of the water department of the municipal service of Oklahoma City, Mr. Donnelly is known as a young man of sterling character and as one who takes loyal interest in all that touches the welfare and advancement of his home city, where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances. He gives careful and effective attention to the duties of his position and is one of the valued members of the official corps at the city hall.

Mr. Donnelly was born at Bucklin, Linn County, Missouri, on the 14th of October, 1880, and is a son of Owen and Mary (Selman) Donnelly, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in the State of Texas. After completing the curriculum of the public schools of his native town Mike Donnelly entered the Presbyterian College at Brookfield, Missouri, in which he completed literary and business courses and was graduated as a member of the class of 1898. After his graduation Mr. Donnelly devoted two years to teaching in the schools of his native state and then went to Kansas City, where he assumed a clerical position in the general offices of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and where he remained thus employed three years. He thereafter was associated with Swift & Company, the great Chicago meat packers, in their plant at Fort Worth, Texas, until 1904, when he established his residence in Oklahoma City and entered the employ of the large furniture house of Bass & Harbor. He maintained his home at Capitol Hill and was mayor of that city at the time when it was made an integral part of Oklahoma City. When annexation was made, in 1911, he was elected a representative of the Capitol Hill district in the city council of Oklahoma City, and in this capacity he continued to serve with marked efficiency until the commission system of municipal government was adopted by the city. Immediately afterward he was elected by the city commissioners to his present important post, that of chief clerk of the modern and extensive, water department of the city service,–a position in which he has shown exceptional executive ability and groat capacity for the handling of manifold details. Mr. Donnelly accords unwavering allegiance to the democratic party and is one of its influential representatives in Oklahoma City. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church and he is actively affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Woodmen of the World.

At Norman, this state, on the 31st of December, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Donnelly to Miss Minnie Renner, daughter of Louis and Fannie E. (Gray) Renner, the former of German and the latter of English lineage. The two children of this union are: Leon Louis, who was born October 19, 1905; and Frances Marie, who was born July 31, 1907.