Otey née Lewis was born on October 4, 1880, in Lynchburg, Virginia.

[2] In 1910 Otey became a member of the Lynchburg Equal Suffrage League, which was founded by her mother Elizabeth Langhorne Lewis.

[2] After the ratification of the Nineteenth amendment in 1920 Otey ran for the statewide office of superintendent of public instruction.

In 1933 she ran for United States Senate, again as a Socialist against the incumbent Harry F. Byrd and lost.

She published a study in 1940 called “ An Outline for Foreign Social insurance and Assistance laws.” She retired in 1948.