Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

Euhal Arlington Holliman (1912 - 1989),
the Third Child of Ulyss and Pearl Holliman

The Ulyss and Pearl Holliman family moved to Irondale from Fayette, Alabama in 1917, and Ulyss settled in to his new job at the Birmingham Electric Company.  The above photograph is from 1924.  Left to right: Vena, Euhal holding Virginia, Bishop in front with the stick, and Melton holding the youngest, his brother Ralph Holliman. Vena is dressed formally (age 15) and both Euhal (age 10) and Melton (age 16) are wearing the style of the time, knickers.  (This style of boy's pants is frozen in time today as the uniform of baseball players.)  Note Euhal, Melton and Bishop (only 4) are all wearing caps or hats.

Melton was born in 1908, and before the Great Depression in 1927, he obtained a position in his Uncle Floyd Caine's drug store.  Euhal came of age right in the middle of the Depression, and jobs were scarce.  He went to work for a local grocery store, and spent his career in the food business.

He met a pretty young lady named Edna Westbrook (below) and in 1936 they married.  Six children were eventually born of this union which lasted 54 years!

Edna Westbrook Holliman (1916 - 1992),  a native of Cherokee County, Alabama, married Euhal July 9, 1936.  Edna is the daughter of Annie Josie Naugher Westbrook and Thomas Edward Westbrook.  Daughter Tommie Holliman Allen believes they met in East Lake, Alabama, when Edna's sister's boyfriend, later Tommie's uncle, introduced them. Edna was 18 when this picture was taken.

                                             This is young handsome Euhal, probably about 1935.

 A hard worker all his life, he was a leader in the Irondale Lion's Club,  his labor union and in retirement, the Irondale Auxiliary Police. Super market chains appeared in America after World War II, and wages were low and benefits few.  A leader in the labor union movement, Euhal helped organize and lead grocery workers to better compensation and working conditions during his career at chains Jitney Jungle, Piggly Wiggly, Kroger and Brunos as produce manager, before retiring in 1972.

     Euhal, center right, in the white coat  at a national union convention in California in 1956.

Like his three  brothers, he took his physical for the Army in World War II, but due to age and having four children to support, he was not called up.  The family lived in Gadsden, Alabama in the 1940s until the middle 1950s.  In 1956, they  moved to the Ulyss and Pearl Holliman home in Irondale, living there for the rest of Euhal and Edna's lives.


Next Posting, the Children of Euhal and Edna....


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 Tommie Holliman Allen and Bishop Holliman for the pictures.