Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

War Comes and Changes Everything

by Bishop Holliman

Bishop Holliman, a native of Irondale, Alabama, continues his memoirs of the coming of World War II and its impact on  his life and family....

"I checked with the draft board, and learned I would probably be inducted that fall – October or November, 1941.  I had already decided I would join the Navy rather go into the Army, as the first draftees were having a terrible time at Camp Blanding in Florida and I wanted no part of that.  I would not sign up thought until I had to.  We still did not know if America would get into the war.

Bishop Holliman, born December 17, 1919, in the U.S. Navy from November 1941 until September 1945.

 I also made the decision not to return to Birmingham Southern College that September since  it appeared I would not be able to finish the semester – a decision I have wondered ever since if it was a wise one.  I learned later that I probably would have been deferred until the end of the term.  But all that is hind-sight. 

Right, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman, formerly from Philadelphia, visited Irondale, Alabama in February 1945 prior to her marriage to Bishop Holliman in June 1945.  Here Ulyss Holliman, in an unusual display of affection, has his arm around Gerry!

I don’t recall how long Vena, Robert and Mary (the Daly family that lived next door to the Hollimans) remained at Daytona, probably for a month.  I had obtained a temporary job at Sloss-Sheffield steel and Iron Company, so I was out of touch with goings on and getting ready to make my exit from home and Birmingham.  I had a good friend who worked at S.S. Steel and Iron, who got me the job.  I was paid, I think, 75 cents an hour, more money than I had ever seen.  


I worked up until the end of October, joining the Navy Friday, November 13, 1941.  Mama, Daddy Ralph, Vena and Robert came to the train station to see me off!


 I came out of the war unscathed, married a pretty girl from Philadelphia who became the mother of my children, so don’t look back."

Next, back to Florida in the 1950s....