Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

Ralph Holliman, the War Sweeps over the Holliman Family… Part III
by Glenn N. Holliman

The successful days of high school closed for Ralph in 1942.  When a sophomore at Shades Cahaba in Birmingham, Alabama, Germany invaded Poland, and before his junior year, France fell to the Nazis.  The British fought for their existence in the skies over London.  After Pearl Harbour during his senior year, the young Alabamian knew he would soon be joining his brother, Bishop, and millions of other Americas in the War.  

Right, William Ralph Holliman, age 17, a senior at Shades Cahaba High School in Irondale, Alabama.

In February 1942, Ralph took a week off from his senior year to travel by car with his parents, Ulyss and Pearl Holliman, and his brother-in-law and sister, Charles and Loudelle Ferrell to visit his older brother in Key West, Florida.  Bishop Holliman had joined the Navy in November 1941, and a few months later Americans were worried sick by the Japanese advance in the Pacific and German U-Boats in the Atlantic.

To this point only one of the four Holliman brothers was in the fight.  This would soon change.

Below Ralph and Bishop in Key West, Florida, both facing an uncertain and dangerous future, and their Mother knew it.

 Life speeds up during war time. 

The War and his coming induction into the Army led to the marriage in the late winter of 1943 of Ralph and Motie Chism, high school sweethearts.  After a honeymoon in Atlanta (an airplane flight no less!), Ralph in March of that year found himself in basic training in Miami, Florida.  Assigned to the U. S. Army Air Corp, he traveled by troop train to his next base in Stapleton, Denver, Colorado.  Although the train stopped in Birmingham, he was not able to get off to telephone Motie, his young bride.

Once again with the Robert W. Daly, Sr. house as a back drop, Ralph and his new bride, Motie, pose for the camera.  Soon Ralph would leave his new wife for Army service, not to return for almost two years. The marriage would last until Motie's death in 2003.


Next posting, service in England and France before coming home....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Seventh Child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman
Ralph Holliman,  Growing up, Part II
by Glenn N. Holliman, nephew

This is the second of a series on the seventh child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman.  Left, young well-dressed Ralph Holliman, around age 11 and growing fast, had his photo taken at the side of the Robert W. Daly, Sr. home,  just across the lawn from  his own house.  

Ralph proved a good student and as with his siblings, Bishop and Virginia, developed into a public speaker.  In 1938 Ralph from Irondale Junior High and Virginia from Shades Cahaba High School found themselves in the finals of a Birmingham speech contest pitched against each other!

The Birmingham News carried the following article about the contest. Note the sub headline from the  scrapbook of his sister, Virginia Holliman Cornelius.


                         

Ralph and his sister, Virginia Holliman Cornelius, were at Shades Cahaba High School in Birmingham at the same time, she two years ahead of him.  In this photo, Ralph sits on the right side on the next to the back row, just right from his future brother-in-law, Walter Cornelius.  The year is 1939.  Virginia and Walter graduated in 1940 and married in 1942.  Ralph would marry his high school sweetheart, Motie Chism in 1943 as the U.S. Army beckoned.

Next posting, the World War comes....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Seventh Child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman:
 William Ralph Holliman, 1924, Part 1
by Glenn N. Holliman, his nephew

                                               Above, Ralph Holliman in 2011.


At the Ulyss and Pearl Caine home at 2300 3^rd Avenue in Irondale, Alabama on July 3, 1924, William Ralph Holliman was born.  He was the last of seven children of the couple who had moved in 1918 to the working class Birmingham suburb from the small town of Fayette in west Alabama.  His oldest brother, Melton, had been born in 1908, making a spread of 16 years between the first and last child.

In essence, the Holliman children could be divided into an older and younger generation.  Melton -1908, Vena -1909, Euhal -1912 and Loudelle -1914 were all born in Fayette.  Bishop, 1919, Virginia, 1922 and Ralph 1924 entered life in Irondale. Because Vena and Loudelle married exceptional men in 1928 and 1935, the last three children experienced mentoring and were offered many opportunities the first four children did not receive.

When four years old, Ralph and Virginia, age six, in the wheel barrel, had their picture taken with Vena and Loudelle Holliman, their older sisters dressed in bib overalls, probably for the only times in their lives.

One of these brothers-in-law was Vena's husband, Robert Daly, Sr., a banker and second generation Irishman with a wry sense of humor, a generous nature and desire to travel and take family members with him.  The second was The Rev. Charles Ferrell, a Birmingham-Southern College and Yale Divinity School graduate who became a Methodist minister and quietly encouraged his younger in-laws to pursue higher education.  He married Loudelle in 1935.

Because the Dalys built a home next to the Ulyss and Pearl house in Irondale, Robert Daly became a very strong influence on the family, all for the good.  Ulyss, by nature a taciturn and quiet man, worked long hours for the Birmingham Electric Company, up early to build a fire to warm the house in the winter and back after dark, tired from his long commute and a 10 hour day, 5 ½ days a week of repairing street cars.  He did this from 1918 until retirement in 1949, although thanks to the New Deal he began to experience the 40 hour work week and time off in the middle 1930s.

Into this semi-void stepped Robert Daly who took the children places, gave them odd jobs to earn spending money, gently teased them and challenged them to think.  As Ralph exclaimed  in 2011, “Robert Daly was my father!”

Above, sometime in the early 1940s are left to right, Melton Holliman (1908 - 1958), Robert W. Daly, Sr. (1901 - 1959) and Ulyss S. Holliman (1884 - 1965).                                    

Next Part 2 of the biography of W. Ralph Holliman

The Post War Era and Back to Florida
by Bishop Holliman

In the summer of 1955, Bishop Holliman took his young family to Daytona Beach, Florida  to join his newly widowed father and the Robert Daly family.  Left to right, Robert Daly, Sr., Vena Holliman Daly, Becky Holliman, age 5, and Gerry Stansbery Holliman, age 31.

"1941 was my last trip to Florida with the Daly trio until 1955 two months after my mother's death.  The simple pre-World War II world of Irondale, Alabama had given way to marriage, children and a career.  We were living in Johnson City, Tennessee and we drove to Ormond Beach to join Vena, Robert, Bobby Daly and Daddy, Ulyss S. Holliman, for a week.

Right in Daytona Beach, Florida in July 1955, two months after Pearl Caine Holliman died of a heart attack.  Back row is Ulyss Holliman, uncharacteristically wearing sun glasses, who had married Pearl in 1906 in Fayette, Alabama.  Next to him is his oldest daughter, Vena Holliman Daly and her husband, Robert Daly, Sr.  Far right is Bishop’s wife, Geraldine, and front row, Glenn Holliman,  age 8, Bishop Holliman, age 35 and Becky Holliman Payne.


Some things I should have remembered….

In 1935 or 1936 Robert got the bug to buy property in Florida and build and operate a ‘tourist court’, as it was called in those days before the coming of the Holiday Inn.  He wrote to real estate folks in several places and his interest in such a project may be why we went to Clearwater in 1936.

Above two first cousins treading Florida water in 1955. The writer, Glenn Holliman, is  on the left and right Robert Daly, Jr., age 11.  Bob is now a Ph.D. professor of biology at North Alabama State University, Florence, Alabama.

I guess the stress of his banking job was worse than anyone could know at the time.  His Aunt Alice was opposed to such a move and she told him to take up golf instead.  In 1939, he bought three lots on the beach at Daytona…the war came and Robert never built his tourist court."

Robert W. Daly, Sr. suffered from congestive heart failure which would take his life in 1959, age 58, a beloved family mentor.


Next, the 7th Child of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman....

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....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Golden Summers of the 1930s Give Way to the Turbulent 1940s by H. Bishop Holliman 2011

"On July 1, 1941, I registered for the World War II draft, an event that had lasting consequences for me, as it had on everyone else of my age group.  At the time, I was working in a New Deal temporary job in Birmingham, Alabama and at Hill’s Grocery Store on Saturday, planning to return to college in September. 

My brother-in-law Robert W. Daly, Sr., his wife - my sister, Vena and my niece, Mary, already had been to Daytona that summer for two weeks, and here in August they were going back again!  Robert had a very stressful job at the Woodlawn bank, and he decided he should spend at least a month away from it. So they took off again.  This time I went with them to help drive in case Robert did not feel up to driving all the way.  So, I quit both jobs and made my last trip to Florida as a foot loose and fancy free lad.       


Left, Mary Daly Herrin in the bathing cap supervises her cousins, Carolyn and Charles Ferrell at Daytona Beach, Florida the last summer before America went to war. Photos courtesy of Charles H. Ferrell.

 Left to right that late summer in Daytona Beach, Florida: Carolyn and Loudelle Ferrell, Vena and Mary Daly, Bishop Holliman, Robert Daly and Charles Halford Ferrell.   Germany invaded the Soviet Union June 22, 1941.  America was only a few months from being thrust into the growing war.

Robert rented a house (pictured above) similar to the one we had had at Clearwater, Florida in 1936.  Thus, we were prepared to stay as long as allowed by the bank.  A few days into our stay, Loudelle, Charles, Halford and Carolyn joined us.  I think they were living in Jacksonville, Alabama at the time where Charles was the Methodist pastor. There we were - a big part of the Ulyss and Pearl Holliman family, enjoying our stay on the beach in the summer of 1941.

                                             

But it all ended too soon.  Mama wrote from home in Irondale, Alabama to tell me I had received a notice from the draft board to report, adding that 'you had better get back home'.  I planned to hitch hike, which was a popular way for college boys to travel in that day.  But Loudelle would not hear of that, so she pretended that they also had to get home, and that I should ride with them.  And so I did."

Next posting, the War comes and everything changes....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

"So, thus ended my third Golden Summer with the Robert Dalys and my sister, Virginia Holliman Cornelius.  By next summer, 1937, I had finished Shades Cahaba and was hoping to enter Birmingham Southern College that Fall, also trying to pick up odd jobs.  I had reached the age where I would have to start paying my way, and that realization posed all sorts of problems for me.  My days of romping on the beach were over and done with!!"

Above are eight of the thirteen family members who were caught in the 1936 hurricane.  This photo was taken in 1936 in the yard between the Dalys and Hollimans in Irondale, Alabama, a natural photo spot to catch the afternoon sun.  

The youngster with the long tie on the front row is Ralph Holliman, about 12 years old.  The young girl is Mary Herrin, born 1931, with her grandmother’s hands resting on her shoulders.  Her grandmother is Pearl Caine Holliman, age approximately 49 in this photo and not wearing glasses at that time. 

Back row left to right are Ida Hughes Holliman, her husband Melton Holliman, Virginia Holliman, probably 14 in this photo, Ulyss Holliman and Robert Daly, Sr. just behind his wife, Vena Holliman Daly.  Perhaps Bishop Holliman took the photo.

As an aside, notice how young Pearl Caine Holliman appears in this picture.  In just a few years, she will age noticeably with the advent of World War II and three sons going to war. - GNH

 "However, Vena, Robert, Mary and Virginia went to Miami the next summer, and Mr. Stewart Button returned to Irondale and went with them.  Upon their return, I went to Knoxville with Mr. B. staying with a church family there, and we climbed Mt. LeConte in the Smokies.  Virginia may have gone with them again in 1938 or 1939…I am not sure.  My youngest brother, Ralph, went with them in whatever year it was Virginia did not go, even though he has forgotten it!"

In the surf in Florida – left to right – Stewart Button, unidentified, Robert Daly, Mary Daly Herrin, Ralph Holliman and Vena Holliman Daly.

In 1937 Robert Daly, Sr. took the below photo in Miami, Florida of a Pan Am passenger transport, a flying boat which made regular runs to Havana, Cuba and Latin America.  This was a massive aircraft for its day, a Sikorsky S-42, all aluminium capable of 150 mph carrying 32 passengers. Range was an amazing 3,000 miles (very lightly loaded), and it still took five days to carry passengers with luggage from Miami to Buenos Aires!  - GNH

Next, more family memories by Bishop Holliman....