Otelia Maria Cuningham (née Carrington) was born in Charlotte Court House, Virginia on November 25, 1868. Cuningham served as president of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League from 1914 to 1917. She married John Somerville Cuningham (1861-1922) in 1889 and was a longtime resident of Durham, North Carolina. Cuningham died there on June 28, 1934.