My Grandmother's Wall of Photographs, Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman

Is there a grandchild among us who has not stood and stared at family pictures in a grandparent's home?  For a nine year old, the question must be always "Who are those old people?  Did my aunts and uncles really look like that when they were young?" 

Pearl Caine Holliman (1887-1955) had such a wall in her home at 2300 Third Avenue North in Irondale, Alabama.  As a youngster, I marveled at the pictures and wondered who were all those people, those relatives of mine?  Below are a few pictures and memories of my grandmother's wall of photographs.

 

Let me start with an indoor picture, rare for the time, taken of Grandmother Holliman's Christmas tree. It stood in a corner of the living room, a massive tree to my childish eyes. This picture was taken in 1945, the year before I was born but she seemed aways to have a tall tree with electric lights that 'bubbled'. Yes, it is blurry and not the sharpest picture, but let's study it closely.

On the far upper left corner, one sees a photograph of my Aunt Virginia Holliman Cornelius (1922-2011). This may have been her senior picture from Shades Cahaba High School. Today, one of her daughters, Susan Cornelius Wilson of Texas, has possession of it.  

Below, embedded in the lower left corner of Virginia's photograph, notice the World War II photograph of Virginia's husband, Walter Cornelius (1922-2006).  They married in February 1942, one of the three war time marriages in the Ulyss and Pearl Holliman family.  This copy of Virginia and Walter was taken in February 2012 in Trophy Club, Texas.

 

Below Susan Cornelius Williams, one of Walter and Virginia's two daughters, displays this picture seventy years after it first hung in her grandparent's home in Alabama.  These pictures were taken at Alice Holliman Murphy's home in Texas.  Alice is the daughter of Bishop Holliman (b 1919)  and Susan's first cousin.

Next posting, more pictures from Grandmother's wall....