Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

Vena and Robert Daly, Sr. and their Influence on the Holliman Family

In the mid 1920s, Robert Daly, Sr. began working for American Traders Bank in Woodlawn, Alabama.  Later it became the American National Bank of Birmingham.  In addition to being manager of the Woodlawn branch, he would become as a vice president of the larger corporation.

Robert loved to travel and vacation in Florida.  Above are Vena and Robert in 1935.  Robert was incredibly generous with his time and company to the siblings of Vena.  He made himself a beloved figure to the three youngest Holliman children - Bishop, Virginia and Ralph - who often went with the Dalys to Panama City and Daytona Beach, Florida.  Both Vena and Robert were tremendous role models for their generation, and later for their many nieces, nephews and grandchildren.  After the death of Pearl Caine Holliman in 1955, the center of Holliman gatherings moved to Vena and Robert's 'white house' on the east side of Irondale.

Vena and Robert would have two children, Mary Daly Herrin, born 1932 and Robert Daly, Jr., born 1943. Above is Mary in 1936, age 4 with her father at a Florida beach.  They both seem formally dressed for a stroll in the sand!  Below in winter 1944, Mary and her young brother, Bob, attempt to enjoy a light snow.  In the background is the Daly house built in the early 1930s, adjacent to the Ulyss and Pearl family home at 2300 3rd Avenue, Irondale, Alabama.  

Sadly, Robert, Sr. suffered for years from congestive heart failure and died suddenly at his home in 1959.  In the 1960s, Vena served as a sorority house mother at the Universities of Alabama and Mississippi.  In 1971, she remarried Phil Buckheit, a successful newspaper publisher from Spartanburg, South Carolina.  After he died in 1977, she returned to Birmingham, and lived in a condo on Red Mountain next to her sister, Virginia Holliman Cornelius. Vena died 1990.  One of her grand daughters, Iris Daly Williams, recently reminisced that visiting her grandmother in the 1980s was like visiting a queen.  Vena had a presence and gracefulness that her family admired and loved, as this nephew can attest.

Next the third child of Ulyss and Pearl Holliman....


Note: The information and opinions expressed in these family biographies are those of the writer alone. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. The purpose of these articles is to capture a period and family in American history and to pass this legacy along to future generations who share the common bond of family.  My thanks to Mary Daly Herrin for allowing the use of these materials.