Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

Ralph Holliman at War....Part IV
by Glenn N. Holliman
Below, Ralph Holliman right with an Army buddy, unidentified, at the Bournemouth, England air base.

The Army instructed Ralph in the Army Functional File System (his nephew, Glenn, learned the same system 25 years later) in Sacramento, California. By October 1943, he has in a wretchedly crowded troop ship, the Dorthea Dix,  sailing from Newark, New Jersey to the Firth of Clyde, Scotland.

Below, Christmas 1943 Ralph sent a V-Mail Christmas card to the his parents in Irondale, Alabama.  V Mail was a micro-photographed single sheet of paper that allowed a soldier to send home a note.  Vital shipping space was saved with the reduced paper size.  Ralph was not allowed to tell his family where he was stationed in the United Kingdom.  All mail was censored by the military.

For 11 months, he lived in England at Bournemouth and Oxford.  As a clerk for the 326 Ferry Squadron, 9^th Air Force, he filed flight plans.  On June 6, 1944, he noticed a sudden increase in air traffic; three months later he was in France, following his brother, Melton, an Army medic who had arrived at a French-based hospital receiving station in July 1944. On his destroyer, his other brother, Bishop had been passing through the Straits of Gibraltar on D-Day.  

Right, Melton Holliman, arrived in England in May of 1944, and by July was in France where he served until disabled in November of that year.  


One can only imagine the thoughts and prayers of their mother, Pearl Holliman, that year 1944. Except for son Euhal, who was excused from the draft due to age and being the father of four children, her sons were in the European Theater and she knew not where.

Next, the War ends and a career begins....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Golden Summers of the 1930s, Part XII
by H. Bishop Holliman 2011


The story of the West Florida hurricane of 1936 continues by H. Bishop Holliman.

“We learned through folks in the building that the railroad depot would be a safe place for us to go, once it was safe to get out on the street, so soon after daylight that’s where we went.  There was no chance of getting breakfast as the wind and rain continued in full force, and we knew we had better stay put.  So we did.

Taken from the Defuniak Springs, Florida history web site is this photograph of the L & N Railroad station where the Holliman family took shelter.  Hmmm....it does not look all that substantial as a structure.

All morning long the wind blew and blew and the rain poured and poured.  I remember seeing objects such as signs, limbs and other stuff flying through the air.  Up in the  morning the L & N passenger train that ran between Jacksonville and New Orleans pulled into the station.  Its appearance gave us some hope, as we believed if the train could get through maybe the worst was over.

In all the fury, there was no panic and no hysteria throughout our ordeal from the youngest to the oldest.  During the morning other refugees came into the building and one told us the gadget that measured the wind’s intensity was rising and that was a a good sign.  I remember Melton’s saying that he hoped it reached a thousand!  (Probably this was a barometer  indicating rising pressure; the storm was passing.)

Left, the young minister, Charles Ferrell holds his new son, Charles Halford Ferrell, the second grand child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman.

All during the morning, though, we were concerned about Loudelle and Charles and Euhal and Edna back in Birmingham.  There was no way to let them know what was happening to us and that so far we were safe.  Loudelle was just about a month from bringing Charles Halford into the world. And Euhal and Edna has been married only a month.  So our concerns were not confined to our fate there in the depot.  I know now that Mama and Daddy, especially, were carrying a lot of weight on their shoulders that we young ones could not realize.

Below Edna Westbrook Holliman, age 18, the new bride of Euhal Holliman, the third child and second son of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman. Edna and Euhal waited in Birmingham, worried about the family caught in the Florida storm.

Around one o’clock the wind seemed to have subsided a little, so Hoyt and Melton dared to go out in search of some food for all of us.  Maybe they found some, I don’t remember now from this this distant date.  But about mid-afternoon, the wind let up, the sun came out and we all seemed alive again.  We piled into the two cars and headed back to Panama City Beach, hoping Daddy’s car would still be there and that our belongings would also.


It was close to dark when we arrived at our destination.  Limbs and trees were strewn all along the highway on the way, but thankfully, the houses were still there with all our belongings.  The first thing we saw though was Daddy’s car, which had lost some paint due to flying sand.  It was still where we left it, but would it start?  It did, right off.  We immediately packed up, loaded the cars and headed north as the sun sank in the west, glad to be safe and sound and on the way home!

It was a Friday night and we drove all the way to Dothan, Alabama, before stopping to eat and/or finding lodging for the night.  We arrived home late Saturday afternoon, happy to be safe with lots to talk about."

Left, Melton and Ida Holliman were caught in the storm with other members of their family.


Next post, recording the story of the storm in newspaper and in print.....

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.